First Time for Everything
by CombineGLaDOS
Summary: Relationships are a series of firsts. When Overwatch recalls, Angela and Fareeha meet for the first time in years, and that's not the only first as they fall for each other and go through life together. (also on AO3)
1. First Meetings

It was a decent day in Zurich. It wasn't hot, but it the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in sight. With her tutor calling her mother, informing her of illness and saying that she would be unable to see her until Monday, Fareeha was ecstatic. A whole day to relax and play outside!

At least, she was ecstatic until her mother told her she had other plans.

"But I'm 12. I can be left home alone." Fareeha whined when her mother handed her her clothes for the day.

"Ah yes. Let me just leave my daughter home alone for an entire day. What could possibly go wrong?" Ana waved her hands as she spoke, placing her hands on her hips when her daughter didn't move. "Go and get dressed. You're coming to HQ with me, and you will like it and you will behave.".

Fareeha sighed in resignation. She knew fighting with her mother would just end with her either doing as she was told and/or being grounded for a week so she stomped off to her bedroom to put on the dress she'd been handed and just hoped that today went quickly.

Fareeha really didn't want to go to headquarters. She hated having to sit in the staff lounge or follow various members around like a lost puppy. There was absolutely nothing that could make her trip better short of her mother saying 'Fareeha, habibti. You can go home and spend the day by yourself,' but seeing as she was currently having an in-depth, yet hushed conversation with Jack, that seemed very unlikely.

At least, that was until she heard a gruff German voice greet her from behind.

"Reinhardt!" Fareeha ran at him and was met with open arms who immediately wrapped around her in a tight hug.

"Fareeha, it's good to see you." He spoke as he hugged her, letting go when the 12-year-old started to wriggle and laugh. She loved seeing him; he was arguably her favourite member at the headquarters and seeing him always brightened her day.

Ana chuckled as she walked up to them, having finished talking to Jack about whatever the pressing issue was. "Now, Reinhardt, I'd appreciate if you refrained from breaking my daughter.".

"I would never dream of it, Captain.". The large German said, laughing along with the slightly younger woman, patting Fareeha on the back as lightly as he could, the force still causing her to jolt forward slightly.

Fareeha herself tried to look incredulous at the assumption that Reinhardt could break her. "Reinhardt could never break me! I know how to fight!" She exclaimed, thinking back on all the training her mother had put her through and choosing an appropriate fighting stance to face Reinhardt with, who just feigned shock at the sudden challenge and begged for mercy, while everyone else in the room smiled at the small girl's antics.

Gabriel walked in, glanced around the room and shrugged. Fareeha didn't like him as much as the others, but he did sometimes childmind her alongside Jack, and she found him to be almost amusingly domestic when he was with the commander.

He cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "I hate to interrupt this touching moment, but the students from the University are going to be here in a few minutes, and we need to make sure we know who's going with who.".

Fareeha remembered her mother mentioning that some students from the University of Zurich were visiting, but she didn't realise it was today. It did, however, explain why her mother handed her her best dress for the day.

The adults in the room talked for a moment, clearly going over who was getting what group. Judging by the conversation, there were only 7 students in attendance from three different faculties. The faculty of Law students were to go with Jack, the faculty of medicine and science students were to go with Ana. Reinhardt, Gabriel and Torbjörn, wherever he was, were to provide assistance with the tour, whether that be show off certain areas specifically or prepare snacks and beverages.

Fareeha hoped she could just spend the day in the lounge, but her mother had other plans, dragging her off to the entrance where they were to meet the students.

When the students arrived, they were already in their groups, if they could really be called groups. Five of the students immediately made their way over to Jack when he called for the law students, while only two made their way over to Ana and Fareeha: a scruffy looking man who looked like he had been dragged kicking and screaming out of bed and a pretty, blonde girl who didn't quite look old enough to actually be a university student.

"Hello, my name is Ana Amari. I'm a captain here at Overwatch and perform rudimentary field medicine when on missions. This is my daughter, Fareeha. It's nice to meet you both.". Ana smiled with a grin that reached her eyes, while Fareeha pulled a face that she hoped resembled some sort of friendly expression.

"Likewise. I'm Angela. His name is Erik." The blonde woman -Angela- gestured at the scruffy guy who merely grunted a greeting, forcing his hands further into his pockets while looking completely uninterested otherwise.

Ana hummed and smiled before nodding her head towards the building, "Now we have the introductions out of the way, if you'd follow me, we can begin the tour.".

The tour was largely uneventful; Erik wandered along and hardly seemed to be listening to a word Ana said, whereas Angela seemed to hang off her every word and began talking her ear off when they made it to the infirmary. Fareeha couldn't understand a thing Angela was talking about, and judging by the look on her mother's face, neither could she.

They were about to leave the infirmary when Torbjörn stopped by and asked for Ana's assistance with something Fareeha couldn't understand; something about a rifle. The young girl tried to look for the comedy in the fact her mother wouldn't leave her home alone but trusted her to supervise two near adults while she left for a few moments, but the overwhelming awkwardness of the situation prevented her from doing so.

They stood in an overbearing silence for a moment, before Angela spoke up in an attempt to break it. "So, your name is Fareeha, ja? It's nice to meet you! I like your dress."

Fareeha smiled at the girl, who hadn't spoken a word to her since her and her friend arrived on the tour. "Yes. It's nice to meet you too. Thank you.".

Angela was about to say something else when Erik began to talk in a thick, German accent. "Why do we have to wait here, Angie? That woman knows she already showed us the lounge, right?"

"Erik, bitte, I'm trying to talk to our new friend. Besides, she asked us to stay here and this place is basically a military headquarters. We can't just go wandering around, Liebling." Fareeha immediately picked up on the blonde's exasperation.

"Oh, come on, schatz. Why don't we go do some exploring ourselves?" Erik wrapped his arms around Angela's waist and rested his head on her shoulder, holding her in a tight embrace.

The embrace was short lived, however, as Angela twisted herself from it and turned to face him, her back to Fareeha. Instead of replying in English, she replied in German, a language that Fareeha only recognised because of how frequently she'd heard Reinhardt speak it, especially when he was speaking to her mother on the nights he'd spend over at their house.

Erik replied in the language too, and while Fareeha didn't have the first idea as to what they were saying, judging by the tone of voice and the redness creeping onto Angela's face, the conversation was not a happy one.

The argument was halted when Ana walked back into the room. "Sorry about that. Is everything okay?"

Both Angela and Erik looked at her like a pair of deer caught in headlights, the latter's expression dropping back to neutral before he muttered that he was leaving and pushed past Ana, who reached out to grab his sleeve and prevent him from going. All he did was yank his arm away from her and storm off, muttering something about calling his friend to come and pick him up from the 'bore-fest'.

Fareeha, Ana and Angela all watched him leave in shock. They stood in silence for a couple of seconds when Angela finally spoke up, her voice weak and eyes red with tears that she was struggling to hold back. "Sorry, he only came because I asked him to. He wanted to go do something different today…for our anniversary.".

For some reason, Fareeha felt a pang of disappointment when Angela said anniversary, especially given with how the two had interacted.

Ana appeared awkward for a moment, something that didn't go unnoticed by her daughter, before she patted Angela on the arm, offered her a tissue from the box on the table next to them and asked if she wanted to go after him or complete the tour.

After giving her some time to calm down, Angela agreed to finish the tour, the slight delay meaning the other group were already at the entrance and waiting for the bus to pick them up when they finally rounded back towards the foyer for the headquarters.

Being the only student still within the base gave Angela ample time to meet and talk to everyone, telling them that being shown the bases facility gave her the incentive to study hard and one day join the organisation so that she could use their facilities and help more people. She even sat and had a conversation with Fareeha, who couldn't help but think how pretty the 17-year-old was.

Just before the bus turned up, Fareeha's mother had the idea to take a team photo, grabbing Tori and Jason, two other Overwatch members who worked in R&D, to be in it as well. Fareeha tried her best to focus on the camera while she noticed Angela positioning her hand to give Torbjörn bunny ears out of the corner of her eye.

Over the years, Angela visited a few more times, but seldom when Fareeha was there. On the occasions where she did see Angela, she began to learn things about herself and her preferences.

Even when Angela joined Overwatch, Fareeha was out training with the Egyptian military. By the time Fareeha had been released from the military, Overwatch had been shut down and she assumed she'd never see Angela again.

* * *

When Fareeha heard of the recall from Reinhardt, she took an absence of leave from Helix Security and got on the first plane to Gibraltar. She knew the decision was incredibly irresponsible and while she had never been part of Overwatch while it was still legal, she jumped at the opportunity to join up with the reborn version now, both as a way to fulfil a lifelong dream as well as continue her mother's legacy.

When she arrived at the Watchpoint, she was greeted by Winston, who she had met not long before the shutdown of Overwatch, as well as Lena and, of course, Reinhardt. At first, she was a little bit taken aback by how few people were there, but Winston assured her that there were a few more people on the way.

The first night at the Watchpoint was strange, especially given that there were few enough members that they had their own individual rooms in the high-ranking officer's quarters, rather than have to pick a bed in the shared barracks.

Fareeha threw her kitbag unceremoniously into the corner and flopped on the bed. As happy as she was to be here, she'd just endured a five-hour flight which had been delayed by eight hours, and was beginning to feel the fatigue set in. She did contemplate putting some form of pyjamas on but decided against it; she was changing her clothes in the morning anyway.

It didn't take long for her to doze off once she got comfortable.

The next day, Fareeha was the second person in the kitchen, Winston already there making some pancakes for everyone.

"I didn't know you could cook." Fareeha said as she went to make her morning tea, a habit she had picked up from her mother years ago.

The gorilla didn't turn away from what he was doing, but acknowledged the comment anyway. "Of course I can! You don't think I eat peanut butter all the time, do you?"

"No…" Fareeha averted her gaze, finished making her tea and went to sit at the island in the middle of the room, waiting for Winston to finish making breakfast for the group, who were mostly still in bed.

Reinhardt made himself known before Winston finished cooking, greeting both of them and taking a seat next to Fareeha after he grabbed a comedically small glass of orange juice. The pancakes were nearly all gone by the time Lena stumbled into the kitchen, letting out a sleepy grunt as a way of greeting before filling a large thermos with coffee and grabbing an apple, forgoing the pancakes that Winston had slaved over for breakfast.

Winston watched the still half-asleep girl for a moment before he cleared his throat. "So today, Torbjörn and Dr Ziegler should arrive. McCree sent along a message informing me he's currently in Hanamura, but will come here as soon as he is able, and I have yet to hear from Genji.".

Lena, who had decided to rest her head in her arms on the table gave a thumb's up, while Reinhardt leaned back and said, "it will be good to work with those two again! I haven't worked with them properly since King's Row!"

Fareeha was just glad that there were more than just the four of them joining the recall, and was actually looking forward to seeing the two of them again, given how she had not really spoke to either of them since a few years before Overwatch shut down, what with all the Egyptian military and Helix Security work and everything.

Following breakfast, Fareeha decided to spend some time with Reinhardt, both discussing their choice of attire for missions.

"See, the armour is strong and durable, just like me!" Reinhardt patted the metal chest piece, looking at the full suit appreciatively while Fareeha cleaned out the many compartments on the Raptora suit that Helix had thankfully let her 'borrow'.

"Strong and durable? That's funny." She smirked as she cleaned out the particularly grimy knee joint. "I'm sure I remember Torbjörn threatening to hit you with a wrench after a mission more than once.".

"Actually, I threatened him with my hammer. His, when he brought it back in 23 different pieces." Came a voice from the doorway to the vehicle bay, causing both Fareeha and Reinhardt to spin around to face the new person in the conversation, both faces lighting up when they saw their short, Swedish friend.

They'd hardly finished greeting him properly when Reinhardt and Torbjörn started ribbing each other, Fareeha laughing along as they tried to outdo each other in terms of who had saved the others ass more valiantly, before deciding to challenge each other to a drinking contest to settle the playful argument once and for all. She decided not to stick around for that, just in case they tried to get her to join in. She didn't want to outdo the two of them.

It was early evening before Dr Ziegler arrived. Fareeha was walking around near the entrance when she saw her struggling towards the base, old Overwatch kitbag over her left shoulder while she strained to pull a metal case along with her right hand, with her glasses (those were new) threatening to fall off her face any second.

Fareeha jogged over to her and smiled. "Long time, no see, Dr Ziegler.".

Angela dropped the case for a moment, straightened her glasses and looked up at her in confusion for a moment, which was to be expected given she hadn't really seen her in over a decade, her face breaking into a smile when she recognised her. "Fareeha! You've changed so much, it's so good to see you."

The Egyptian bowed her head. "Likewise." She watched as the older woman attempted to pick up the metal case again. "Would you like some help, Dr Ziegler?"

Angela appeared thoughtful for a moment before she dropped the case and gestured to it. "Bitte, and you're more than welcome to call me Angela, Fareeha."

The younger woman smiled at her as she picked up the case…that was far heavier than she expected it to be. "What's even in this?"

Angela, who was readjusting her kitbag onto her other shoulder, glanced at Fareeha, then the case, then back to Fareeha. "The armour parts and wings from the Valkyrie suit.".

Fareeha's eyes widened as they made the same movement to the case that Angela's had done seconds earlier. "You _wear_ this?" she said, incredulously.

Angela shrugged and began walking ahead towards the entrance to the Watchpoint. "It's not that heavy when it's on. If it's too heavy, you can carry the kitbag and I'll take that.".

Not one to step down from a challenge, Fareeha declined the offer. The case wasn't really that heavy to her, and it was just the unexpected weight of it that had caught her off guard. In reality, the case felt lighter than her Raptora suit did, and she knew from experience that the empty suit always appeared to weigh ten times more than what it did when she was inside of it.

She showed Angela to her room, and watched as the medic flopped on the bed as unceremoniously as she herself had done the previous night, mumbling a thank you into the bedding before she rolled over onto her front to face Fareeha, who was a little more than confused over the sight that Angela's vest top revealed prior to her rolling over.

"What are those things on your shoulders?"

Angela shared the same confused look for a moment as she reached back and felt where her shoulder blades were, looking down and smiling as she ran her fingers over the irregularity. "Those are nerve transmission plates. They use them for amputees so they can feel their prosthetic limb. We were testing to see whether they can be used to transmit synthetic nerve control to and from something that wasn't there originally, and I thought they may be helpful when it comes to giving me greater control over my wings, and they do. Before I had to use my- oh, sorry. I'm probably talking too much.". She trailed off, a slight blush creeping on to her face as she averted her gaze from the other woman in the room.

Fareeha quickly stepped in to reassure her. "Oh no, I was actually enjoying listening to you talk. It sounds very interesting and I'd love to know more.". She hoped that Angela would believe she was genuinely interested, because she was, and thankfully, she did.

They discussed Angela's wings for almost an hour before the subject shifted to Fareeha's Raptora suit, both of them thoroughly enjoying the other company as the night drew on and their focused conversation became idle chatter until the doctor fell asleep and Fareeha left for her own room.

As she fell asleep herself, she couldn't help but think about how lucky she was to be here, and how fortunate it was for fate to have brought her and Angela together again.


	2. Two Birds are Better than One

Overwatch hadn't been back together long when duty called for the first time in a long time.

Angela had been spending her day in the old medbay, filing her research papers and setting up her own technology when Athena had summoned everyone to the conference room for an emergency team meeting. She had considered carrying on with her own work, as the one condition she had for re-joining was that she wasn't summoned for as many missions, but she knew she should show commitment, so stopped what she was doing and made her way to the place of her summons.

Everyone was in the room by the time she got there, Winston not even waiting for her to sit down before he began filling everyone in on the situation. "As you all know, I initiated the recall when a mercenary known as Reaper attacked this base and tried to steal information regarding the whereabouts of Overwatch agents such as yourselves." The scientist gestured towards the projection on the screen, which currently showed the masked man before pressing a button on the remote on the table, causing the image to switch to surveillance images from a few days ago in the reclamation area, a cloaked, black figure and curious purple one visible on them. "It appears he has not left Gibraltar, and that Widowmaker is with him. I believe an attack is imminent and that we should prepare.".

Angela semi-listened to the gorilla's proposed plan of attack while the rest of her mind focused on the images. She was certain she had seen Reaper before- while she was providing medical aid in the Middle East, but he had left before she had managed to get a good look at him. As for his companion…she still felt more than a little guilty for what happened to Amélie and Gérard. She didn't believe the whole tripe that she was always a double agent for Talon, even if everyone else seemed to.

She didn't have the chance to ponder the images for much longer, though, as Winston changed them to show records of aircrafts flying in and out of the country, with two dropships that didn't belong to any known benevolent forces entering and exiting Gibraltar airspace. The identified jets having dropped off the radar for a brief period whilst they were somewhere over the Nature Reserve.

"Now I don't believe Talon would fly Reaper and Widowmaker on different jets, so if they are to attack the base, there will be reinforcements on their side. As long as we stick to the plan, we should be able to repel any attacks. Any questions?" Everyone looked at everyone else, shaking their heads as they wracked their brains. "Understood, dismissed.".

Angela was making her way out of the room when she felt someone's hand on her shoulder. She jolted at the sudden contact and spun around, her blue eyes immediately glancing up and meeting brown ones. "Fareeha! You startled me!"

Fareeha's eyes widened as she took a step back, Angela feeling her face flushing from how close they were. "I'm sorry, Angela. I didn't mean to. I was just going to ask if you were okay. You seemed a little spaced out.".

Angela regarded Fareeha for a moment, taking in her features. The colour of her skin, her eyes, the tattoo just below the right one, her plump lips. She truly was gorgeous.

"Angela?"

The doctor felt her face grow infinitely hotter when she realised she'd left it too long before she responded to Fareeha, quickly stumbling over her own words to try and make the situation slightly less awkward. "O-Oh no, I'm fine. Just thinking about the mission. We're guarding the disused area of the base, yes? I should go and get ready.". In her haste to try and move away from Fareeha, she managed to trip over her own feet and only just steadied herself before she ended up face-first on the floor.

She rushed back to her quarters following the awkward encounter and began to put on her Valkyrie suit, focusing on fastening the clasps of the armour so that her mind didn't dwell on the effect her former Captain's daughter had on her.

Angela had always been certain in her sexuality. She liked men and women, and had dated her fair share of both genders, but there was not a single person who made her feel quite as hopeless as Fareeha did. Still, she knew dwelling on those types of thoughts were a waste of time. The woman probably didn't share the same preferences, and even if she did, there was no guarantee that she requited the feelings. She had planned on subtly hinting at her attraction, but given her recent display, she would have been just as well to buy a 50 foot billboard and plaster a poster declaring her feelings for the Egyptian on it.

"Gottverdammt, Angela. You useless, gay idiot." She berated herself as she removed her wings from the protective case and attempted to place them on ports on her back, failing a few times before the right one clicked in to place, the left one following soon after. She flexed them to ease some of the stiffness away before she grabbed her staff and made her way to Operations.

* * *

When she arrived, the only other people present were Fareeha and Winston.

The Egyptian was the first person to see her walk into the room; Winston busy preparing his Tesla cannon on the other side of the room. "Mercy." She nodded at her to acknowledge her.

She immediately picked up on the use of her callsign, rather than her name. She'd been on more than enough missions to know that for the duration, she was no longer Angela Ziegler, but Mercy- The Valkyrie suit wearing field medic who worked hard to protect and save lives. She knew the same would be true for everyone on the defence; Their real names no longer meant anything. They were now their callsigns, each with their own duties to fulfil.

With that in mind, Mercy greeted her teammate. "Hello, Pharah.".

Winston finally looked up from his weapon to greet her as well, picking up barrier generators and placing them in the hidden compartments within his armour. Mercy watched as he moved up to the upper floor in his quarters, watching out for any indication of movement outside. He came down after a few moments, just in time for Tracer, Reinhardt and Torbjörn to come walking into the room, all ready with their own weapons.

They ran through the plan one last time. Torbjörn was to set up his turret in the alcove in the underpass between the server room and Operations while Reinhardt guarded it and provided a safe refuge for Mercy when she wasn't running around healing the others. Tracer and Winston were to try to funnel the Talon troops towards the turret, while Pharah was to take out anyone who thought they could take an alternate path.

They knew it was risky letting Talon have a free walk this far into the base, but with only six of them, this was the best tactic the could come up with, especially with Reaper and Widowmaker bound to turn up. Besides, it still kept the part of the base embedded into the cliffside safe.

Once everything felt settled, they went and set up their defences and waited for the inevitable attack.

They didn't have to wait for long.

Tens of Talon foot soldiers stormed the base at once, and they hadn't even managed to take out a fifth of them when another wave arrived, battering the defences that they had set up. It was astounding just how many there were.

The turret was doing its job and the bodies piled up as Talon fed themselves to it, but as their numbers built, the turret was becoming significantly less efficient. Mercy saw Winston move towards the clearing by Operations, trying to hold off the Talon forces that used their fallen comrades as a way to block the fire from the turret and the occasional hammer swing from Reinhardt so that they could get by.

"Mercy, I need your help! I'm near the barracks!" Tracer's voice came through the earpiece. She sounded breathless and as though she was in pain. Reinhardt moved out to provide Mercy with cover so that she could run across to the stairwell and get to the upper level. Tracer couldn't have needed help at a better moment, as Talon seemed to be running out of agents as no more could be seen behind the group already headed down the ramp.

She was just about to make her way through the doorway to the barracks when a reddish-purple smoke built up in front of her, Reaper's form emerging as the haze cleared. He aimed his hellfire shotguns straight for Mercy's head. She barely had time to duck under his arm and run through the doorway before he fired them.

She glanced down towards the barracks, and assumed that Tracer must've been inside. She had to get there to help her, but when she heard Reaper's heavy footsteps behind her she knew she couldn't make a straight run for it. Instead, she made to sprint to the entrance, then quickly turned back on herself and threw herself into Reaper's midriff, causing him to fall backwards.

She used the opening to dash towards the other entrance to the barracks, but was stopped in her tracks when a loud gunshot pierced the air, the concrete chipping at her feet where the bullet impacted the ground. Mercy glanced up and saw Widowmaker lining her up in her scope, ready to fire if she tried to move forward.

As if to make the situation infinitely worse than it already was, another wave of Talon members forced their way through the doorway that led to the satellite array.

Between them, Reaper and Widowmaker, there was nowhere she could run, and without any friendly's in her line of sight, there was nowhere she could fly to either.

"Mercy!" The swiss woman looked up and caught a glimpse of blue armour in the air. _Pharah._

She didn't waste a second in tethering her staff to the woman, allowing her to fly up into the air next to her, her heart pounding in her chest when a barrage of gunfire from the numerous Talon forces filled the air, narrowly missing her.

Pharah began to fire at the foot soldiers, attempting to reduce the flow heading towards the choke point. Mercy tried her best to stay behind Pharah, pressing a switch on the Caduceus Staff so that instead of a yellow beam flowing into Pharah, a blue beam flowed towards her instead.

"What did you do? I feel amazing!" Pharah shouted over the sound of her rockets colliding with the talon soldiers.

"The nanotechnology in the staff can provide a temporary boost to people and technology." Mercy explained, gliding gracefully in the air to avoid the gunfire while still staying close to her saviour. She kept an eye on the two higher up Talon members and pointed them out to Pharah, who used a concussive blast to send Widowmaker falling to the ground, in turn causing several foot soldiers to drop as the French woman fell on top of them.

Reaper moved towards the fallen sniper, but Mercy stopped Pharah before she had the chance to pick them both off. "Tracer's in the barracks. I think she's hurt. Can you cover me while I run in there?"

Pharah turned to look at her and nodded, moving herself closer to the ground so that Mercy could make a run for it. To her surprise, Pharah followed close behind her, having one hand poised to grab her arm and pull her into the air again if she had to. The younger woman had said something as they ran through the doorway, but Mercy couldn't hear her properly over the sound of her own pulse in her ears.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they saw the brit slumped over in the corner, the chronal accelerator's light non-existent. There was a trail of blood from the entrance on the other side to the puddle that Tracer was currently in.

Mercy felt her heart drop through the floor as she ran over, calling out Tracer's name. _Oh god I was too late and she's dead and I can't save her._ Her mind began to spin out in panic before it completely stopped functioning for a second when the injured woman looked up.

"Doc? Oh, thank god. I thought you Talon." Her features were twisted with pain, and she moved her hands to push down over her left leg.

Mercy let out a sigh of relief as she ran over and knelt beside her; Pharah joined her a second later, clearly having faith that no one was going to follow them. Mercy applied pressure to the gunshot wound on Tracer's leg with one hand, while trying to ready her staff with the other.

An armoured, blue hand gently pushed her hand off the injury before applying pressure to the wound, Pharah's other hand pressing atop the first one to increase the pressure on the injury. "I've got it." She said, keeping her eyes on her hands. "You focus on healing it.".

Mercy looked at Pharah and nodded, before grabbing her staff with both hands and readying it for healing the injury. With the press of a button, the blood flow stopped and the wound closed, Tracer letting out a sigh of relief. "Can't believe playing dead worked. Idiots didn't even check.".

Mercy smiled at her, knowing that it did nothing to hide the concern in her eyes. Tracer was still sat in a sizable puddle of blood, and while her technology could heal wounds, it couldn't spontaneously create more of the vital fluid. "Stay here until it's safe. Hide under a bunk if you have to."

Tracer did her signature salute before she crawled off to the side, doing as Mercy had suggested and sliding under one of the beds. Once she was satisfied with how Tracer had hidden herself, Mercy gestured for Pharah to follow her back to the main area.

The first thing they noticed upon exiting the barracks was that the troops had left, including Reaper and Widowmaker, but gunfire could still be heard towards Operations. They wasted no time in heading there, Mercy damage boosting Pharah so that when they arrived, they could wreak havoc on the remaining Talon forces.

There were at least 30 members in the area near Operations, with an additional five having Reinhardt, Torbjorn and Winston pinned down against a rugged piece of rock beside the entrance, leaving a grand total of 35 members.

They didn't last long after Mercy and Pharah got there. Most of them bugged out the moment they heard a rocket collide with a comrade; the rest weren't so lucky, as they became little more than a corpse and/or scorch mark on the ground.

Once the area was clear, both women made their way towards the ground, panting and covered in sweat, taking a second to catch their breath before going over to the three men who all looked equal parts horrified and impressed by what they had just witnessed.

"Lena, are you okay?" Winston spoke into his communicator, switching his eye contact between Pharah and Mercy.

"I'm okay. Amél- Widowmaker got a lucky hit in. Good thing we have the doc and Pharah on our side!" Lena's voice came over the channel, sounding a little tired but bubbly all the same.

"I agree with you there, rookie." Torbjörn added, currently having issues deciding who he was more surprised by.

Suddenly, Pharah broke out laughing, causing all eyes, including Mercy's, to end up on her. "That was awesome!" She exclaimed, before dropping her launcher and pulling the older woman into a tight hug. "Angela, we're unstoppable together!"

Angela froze for a second and felt her face begin to heat up, but she quickly snapped out of her building embarrassment and returned the hug, feeling the tension begin to melt away from her body as she held the younger woman close. She was about to say something when Reinhardt cleared his throat, grabbing the attention of both women and causing them to drop the embrace that Angela had so wished was something more than a spur-of-the-moment 'we're an awesome team' hug.

Winston stretched and began to move in the direction of the barracks. "I'm going to fetch Lena. Angela, can you come with me and can the rest of you start the clean up? I'll join you once Lena's in the medbay."

Angela nodded and followed him, trying not to overthink the hug she and Fareeha had just shared.

Today was a successful mission, and she hoped that for every future mission she partook in, she and Fareeha would team up again and become the unstoppable force they were.

 **A/N: for the record, in this universe Mercy can't rez. Also Tracer got too blink happy prior to being shot, so she couldn't recall. Convenient plot points~~~**


	3. First Date

Angela stretched her arms back, sighing at the satisfying pop her joints let out as she extended them. She'd spent most of the day cooped up in the medical bay, and while there were more people in the way of company after she called in the odd favour, it was still a fairly lonely place to be.

She was absently aware that she was supposed to have taken her lunch break nearly an hour ago, but the bar of chocolate she'd brought with her sufficed enough for now. After all, she could eat later when she'd finished working, and being the chief medical officer, it wasn't as if anyone could lecture her over the situation.

She popped the last square of chocolate into her mouth, and went to finish her coffee only…she already had done? She certainly didn't remember finishing it, but she'd been reading reports for the last hour and been absentmindedly sipping from her mug. She must've finished it at some point and not noticed, and while she could easily forgo food, she certainly wouldn't forgo coffee.

She was about to leave the room with her disappointedly empty mug when the door opened and Fareeha walked in. She wracked her brain; she didn't have a check-up today, and she certainly seemed fine, even if she did look as though she was shaking.

"Fareeha, can I help you with anything?" Angela asked, resting her hip on her desk.

"No…yes…maybe…" Fareeha averted her gaze, and took deep, calming breaths before she attempted to speak again. "I was just wondering when you finished work later?"

Now this was strange. Fareeha was normally fairly confident, and while she wasn't a total nervous wreck, something was clearly sparking some form of worry within her. Angela was determined to get to the bottom of it and played along. "6:30. Why?"

Again, deep breaths before Fareeha spoke. She closed her eyes and brushed a hand through her hair. "No reason…I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out later? Go to see a movie or have dinner or both or something?"

Angela certainly wasn't expecting that. If it wasn't for the fact she was already leaning against her desk, she would've been floored by the question. "Like a date?" She said, her heart soaring when she saw Fareeha's slight nod and hope fill her eyes. "Of course, I'd love to."

Relief flooded the other woman's face. "Great! I'll meet you outside your room at 7:30?"

Angela hardly had time to tell her that was fine before she was giving her thanks and making a quick exit from the medbay, she herself leaving after her to refill her coffee with a stupidly happy grin plastered onto her face.

From then, Angela couldn't wait for her shift to finish. She'd planned on pulling some overtime, even if she wasn't really getting paid for her work -Overwatch was still illegal, after all- but after her encounter with a certain Egyptian, she found herself clockwatching.

4 hours until the end of her shift, 5 until the date. 3 hours until the end of her shift, 2 hours until the date. Time to finish work, one hour until the date.

She'd never ran back to her room so fast in her life, wasting no time preparing herself for her dinner and/or movie, barely managing to remove her uniform before she dove into the shower.

Once she had finished and brushed her teeth, she set to picking out clothes to wear, suddenly becoming all too aware of the fact she wasn't sure whether she was supposed to wear something formal or casual. In any event, she had the grand total of one outfit for the former situation and three for the latter situation that weren't sat in her rapidly growing laundry pile, so she wasn't exactly spoilt for choice.

After much deliberation (and inspection of available underwear), she settled for the form fitting black dress. She couldn't see any other situation where she would be wearing it for the foreseeable future, and as long as she didn't go overboard with accessories and makeup, it'd look the perfect mix of casual and formal.

She was about to put her contact lenses in when there was a knock at her door, signalling her suitors arrival.

As much as she wanted to dart over to the door, she knew that appearing too eager would almost certainly put Fareeha off, so she took a few seconds to contain her excitement (and grab her glasses, deciding her contact lenses would take too much effort to put in now) before going to meet her.

When she opened the door, her jaw dropped.

Fareeha stood there in a plain shirt, black jeans and combat boots, the whole outfit appearing smart but casual, just like Angela's. She also looked drop-dead gorgeous and the swiss woman couldn't believe that she was about to go out with this woman!

The Egyptian didn't seem to be fairing much better, a hint of red creeping on to her cheeks as she took in the sight before her.

"Um…hi." Fareeha broke the stunned silence. "You look…amazing!"

Angela was certain that the room had heated up exponentially. "Thank you, Fareeha. You don't look too bad yourself."

"Thanks." Fareeha smiled her gorgeous smile as she rested one shoulder against the doorframe, clearly finding her confidence. "So, they're reshowing some old movies at Leisure Cinemas and I thought you might like to see something and then get food after?"

The plan sounded great, and Angela was about to agree when her stomach decided to chime in instead, making a startlingly loud growling noise at the mention of food. It was at that moment she realised that a single chocolate bar was not sufficient food for a day and she couldn't bear the thought of sitting through a two-hour long movie with hunger pains, even if she did grab the largest bucket of popcorn on sale.

"That sounds nice, although can we get food first?"

Fareeha chuckled and nodded. "Sure. Anywhere in particular?

Angela thought for a second, then remembered a nice wine bar she liked to frequent whenever she was over at the Watchpoint back when Overwatch was still a legal organisation, rather than one trying to function without alerting the authorities.

Yes, that would do quite nicely.

* * *

The wine bar was as nice as Angela remembered. The décor looked like something from the 90's, mixed with the odd modern touch. The smells were the same and the selection of food and wine seemed better than ever.

Of course, the better-looking menu didn't mean she'd order any different than how she used to. The spaghetti and meatballs served here were so much better than anywhere else, even the dishes she'd had while she was stationed in Italy didn't come close to the meal this particular establishment prepared.

Fareeha, for her meal, had opted for the vegetarian burger, which was funny because as far as Angela was aware Fareeha wasn't a vegetarian. Her only dietary requirement she had listed on her medical record was that she didn't eat pork. It was only when she started chuckling and told Angela to read the description did she understand why she ordered it; It had swiss cheese in it and Fareeha thought she was being funny. The glare Angela gave her was short-lived before she herself laughed at the choice.

While they waited for their meals to arrive, they talked about Overwatch and their lives leading up to now. At one point, they accidently got onto the subjects of exes, but instead of it ruining the mood, they dissolved into giggles when Fareeha admitted she was jealous of Genji at first because she thought he'd walked into the Watchpoint a month ago and immediately swept Angela off her feet again. She didn't realise that Angela gave him swiss chocolates for Valentine's Day because it was his birthday the following weekend and that is his absolute favourite food stuff.

They'd moved onto the subject of favourite sports (it turned out Fareeha was as knowledgeable on basketball as Angela was on football) when their food had arrived. One thing Angela could always commend this place over was that whenever they put up their prices, they either kept the portion size the same or increased it. In this case, it was the latter as she was presented with the single largest plate of spaghetti and meatballs that she had ever seen in her 37 years of life.

Fareeha's plate wasn't quite as filled as hers, but the burger in the middle of it was still large enough that when she picked it up and tried to take a bite out of it, she ended up having to remove some of the garnish in order to actually fit it in her mouth.

Angela would've laughed if she wasn't so preoccupied with all but vacuuming up her own food, the plate being almost completely cleaned by the time Fareeha had finished half of her burger.

"Wow, Angela. You really were hungry." She said between bites. Angela felt her face flushing with embarrassment, silently berating herself for demolishing the plate so quickly. She was going to apologise when Fareeha spoke up again. "You are the single most awesome woman I have ever been on a date with.".

She blushed from the compliment. It wasn't often she found someone who thought her ability to make food disappear in two minutes flat was endearing. In fact, her previous partner hated it so much that she refused to go out to dinner with her. It was refreshing to have someone who felt the opposite over it.

Fareeha offered her some of the chips she had left on her plate, but Angela refused, citing that she was too full to eat anymore. Really, she still felt hungry, but she knew from experience that that was purely down to the fact she'd eaten so quickly, and that attempting to eat any more in this present moment would lead to her feeling full, lethargic and possibly ill if she overdid it. Still, that didn't stop her from eyeballing the dessert menu and fantasising about all the dishes that she could possibly have.

"So you are still hungry." Fareeha smirked as she wiped her mouth with her napkin.

Angela feigned offence at those words; how dare she insinuate something that was entirely true. "Maybe I am, but if I eat anymore I'll fall asleep during the movie."

"Well I guess I'll just have to carry you back to base afterwards then, won't I?" Fareeha said without missing a beat, her eyes widening for a second before she averted her gaze. Clearly, she hadn't realised what she was going to say until she said it. "I mean it's entirely up to you. I'll pay either way."

With that extra piece of information, Angela decided she definitely wasn't going to have dessert. Nice as the place was, it was still ridiculously expensive and besides, they were going to see a movie, and movies generally meant popcorn. More food, and also a part of the date Angela could pay for, seeing as Fareeha had already taken the executive decision to pay for this part.

* * *

The walk down to the cinema was relaxing. Rather than talk on the way down, they walked hand in hand in silence, simply enjoying each other's company as the moon lit the streets.

When they got there, there was only one movie still showing. Superhero movies never appealed to Angela. She'd attempted to watch them before seeing as everybody seemed to love them, but she often found herself doing something else before she was even halfway through the duration of it.

At least this one had a female lead.

After picking up the tickets and a reasonably sized bucket of popcorn, they made their way into the screen (true to her intentions, Angela had paid.). It was surprisingly full for an 11:30 showing to the point that trying to get to their seats required a lot of awkward stepping on people and repeated apologies.

They'd just managed to reach their seats when the previews began to play, showing a range of other superhero movies that interested Angela despite the fact she knew she wouldn't care for them if she attempted to watch them. She glanced over at Fareeha, and could almost see her making a mental note of everything that came up.

"Do these kind of movies appeal to you?" Angela asked, gracelessly shoving a fistful of popcorn into her mouth.

"They're my favourite genre. I used to have a huge collection when I was younger. I gave them to my cousin when I joined the military though." Fareeha recalled. "I don't know if she actually watched any of them though. She was very girly."

Angela nodded along. It was hard to imagine someone such as Fareeha having such an interest. Then again, she knew from experience that someone may have surprising interests; she still had flashbacks to the anime marathons she used to endure with Genji.

Once the movie started, Angela found herself engrossed. The plot, the action sequences, everything about it was so…brilliant, and not just because she'd somehow fallen head over heels for the heroin of the film. On top of that, said heroin was also bisexual, and seeing her sexuality represented in a movie 65 years old made her feel incredible.

Alas, as much as she was enjoying the film, she still ended up falling asleep from food induced fatigue at one point. She woke up when someone started shaking her and calling her name.

"Angela. Angela!" Fareeha whispered in a hushed tone. "Wake up! You're about to miss the best part!"

Angela groaned, but opened her eyes just in time to see Wonder Woman going up into No Man's Land. As the scene played out, Angela couldn't help but stare with fascination. The whole thing was incredibly empowering, and judging by the look of pure amazement on her face, Fareeha was enjoying the scene too.

The movie went all too quickly after that. Both Angela and Fareeha waited for more people to filter out first before they left, knowing they'd get easily separated otherwise.

Fareeha wrapped her arm around Angela's waist for the walk back to the Watchpoint. It'd take the better part of an hour, but it was better than calling Lena to come and pick them up. As much as Angela cared for the brit, she'd just had one of the most amazing nights of her life and didn't want to be ribbed about the date before it was even over.

The first part of the journey was filled with the two of them gushing about the movie. Fareeha admitted to having seen it multiple times before, to the point the only one she'd possibly watched more was Black Panther.

"That movie was amazing! I've never seen one so good!" Angela gushed, gesturing excitedly with her hands.

"Yes, Wonder Woman is quite…wonderful." Fareeha smirked, exhaling sharply thanks to the elbow now firmly planted in her side. "Oh come on, that was funny!"

The second part of it was mostly spent complimenting the scenery and each other, which meant that by the time they got back to the Watchpoint, they were both blushing and giggling like schoolgirls.

Everyone had already gone to bed, so there was no chance of anyone catching them. It wasn't that they didn't want people to know about their feelings for each other, it was just that Angela had been bitten before from announcing a relationship while it was still in the early stages, and didn't want a repeat now. That, and the fact that she didn't want a lecture from someone about how dating someone you go on missions with is going to lead to distraction and therefore is a recipe for disaster.

When they got to the door for Angela's room, they stood awkwardly for a moment, Fareeha shuffling on her feet while looking at the ground. "So…here we are. I had a really great night."

"Me too." Angela smiled, leaning against the door.

Fareeha smiled and looked up, brown eyes meeting blue. "Really? Want to do it again some time?"

It was that moment where Angela realised how goddamn adorable Fareeha was. The whole night, she'd been acting confident but the occasional slip showed that she was still nervous over the whole thing, the current slip being the biggest indication that Angela probably wasn't the only one feeling like a hopeless gay idiot.

Her feelings for the other woman overwhelmed her, and for a brief second the part of her brain responsible for making good judgement decided to shut down as the threw her arms around the taller woman's neck and pressed their lips together.

It felt wonderful and right, at least until Angela realised that she was the only person actively taking part.

She moved backwards and looked up at her date, who was staring wide eyed and stood stock still. She felt her face get warmer and warmer as she contemplated all the different ways out of the situation: run into her room, run down the corridor, jump out the window.

Before Angela could vacate the premises, Fareeha grabbed her and mashed her lips into hers, Angela sighing into her mouth as she eagerly returned the kiss, both of them only breaking apart when their lungs began to burn from the lack of oxygen.

"I'll take that as a yes." Fareeha said, breathlessly, still holding Angela close.

"Of course, I'll go on a date with you again." Angela giggled, the sound only being cut off by a yawn.

Fareeha let go of her and leaned against the wall with the biggest grin on her face. "Great, although I think someone needs their bed now, don't they?"

Angela sleepily agreed, unlocking the door to her room and making her way inside, bidding a final farewell to Fareeha.

That night, she fell asleep feeling more content that she had in years.


	4. Those Three Words

Fareeha walked through the corridors, keeping her destination at the forefront of her mind: the infirmary. She wasn't injured beyond a few mostly healed bruises, and she didn't have a check-up scheduled for at least another week, but she did have a purpose in mind that involved chocolates and flowers.

When she got to the doors, she knocked and patiently waited for a response from inside. She was certain Angela's schedule was free for the next few hours, but she didn't want to risk barging she in on any impromptu appointments. Thankfully, it still appeared as though Angela was free, as she could hear the woman beckoning her in from inside.

As she pushed through the doors, she saw the Angela rummaging through the file cabinet, beginning to speak before she turned around.

"I'll be with you in one second, just let me-" she glanced over her shoulder, a smile reaching her eyes spreading on her face when she realised who the guest was. "Fareeha. It's nice to see you. Are those for me?"

Fareeha returned the smile before she walked over to the doctor, holding her gifts out towards her. "Who else would I be getting these for, habibti?"

The Egyptian and swiss woman had been officially together for the past two months. They were still happily in the phase of surprising each other with gifts and visits throughout the day, and it showed no sign of ending soon.

"You do have a point. Thank you." Angela smiled as she rounded her desk took the gifts, her grin getting wider when she realised Fareeha had gone all out and had bought her favourite chocolates. "So, how has your day been?" She asked, leaning back on her work station.

"It's been good. Hell of a lot better now I'm seeing you though." Fareeha joked, making a finger gun gesture at the other woman who just buried her face in her hands at the horrendous line, accidently skewing her glasses. She moved her hands away from her face and corrected them before she smiled at her girlfriend. "How was yours?"

"Ah, the same as always. Genji decided it would be fun to train with Lena but overextended his left arm and dislocated it. McCree came by and teased him about it while I was relocating the shoulder. Genji didn't find it funny."

"So that's why Jesse's face looked swollen when I saw him." Fareeha couldn't help but snicker when Angela nodded along; the thought of the cowboy getting decked by Genji was more than amusing, even if it would've hurt. She stopped following the playful shove and stern look she got off her girlfriend, who chuckled herself when her attempts at stopping Fareeha's amusement appeared futile. Watching Angela laugh, Fareeha couldn't help but feel so helplessly in love with her, and leaned over to give the woman a quick kiss that was eagerly returned.

"Fareeha..."Angela cupped the younger woman's face, rubbing her thumb across her cheek as she stared into her deep brown eyes. "I lo-"

"All agents, report to the meeting room immediately." Athena's voice spoke over the intercom, interrupting what Angela was about to say.

As much as the prospect of hiding in the medical bay and spending time together appealed to the two of them, both women knew they couldn't ignore such a call. With an irritated sigh, Fareeha took the lead as they both left and made their way down to the conference room.

* * *

As much as Overwatch had respected her wishes when it came to not taking her on as many missions, Angela still had to answer the call of duty from time to time, especially given that she was the only true field medic they had. At least this time, she had a girlfriend to bring with her.

Currently, they were sat inside the drop ship, readying their weapons and taking inventory of what they had. Pharah grabbed as many rockets as she could hold in one hand, and began to load them into the compartments in the suit, ready for a barrage if it was required, before moving on to load her rocket launcher.

Mercy was busy readying her Caduceus Blaster and placing it in the hidden holster under the side armour of her Valkyrie suit, before grabbing her staff and inspecting it closely, ensuring it was in working order before the mission. Fully satisfied, she strolled over to her girlfriend, who was still inspecting every inch of her weapon and Raptora suit. The younger woman glanced up, her eyes full of adoration. "Ya amar, you know I think you look beautiful normally, but I must say you look gorgeous with your wings."

Mercy could feel herself blushing at the compliment. "Thank you. You look rather fetching in your armour yourself, schatz, although you look better in a dress shirt. If only I had a way to get you into one…" She sighed wistfully before she smirked up at her lover. "Maybe I'll take you to dinner when we get back.".

This time Pharah blushed, her dark cheeks gaining an adorable hint of red as she considered what Mercy had just said to her. Mercy just thought about how endearing it was to see the soldier get stunned into silence by the proposition of a date, and how much she loved everything about her. It made her want to spend as much time with her as possible.

"I'd love to go to dinner with you." The dropship shook as it began to near its destination of Nepal. "I love-"

Just as Pharah was about to finish her sentence, Winston walked down the stairs to them, informing them that they had to be upstairs and ready to leave within the next minute or so. Not wanting to keep him waiting, they followed him back up the stairs, Fareeha letting those three words go unsaid.

* * *

When the team of Pharah, Mercy, Winston and Tracer had arrived at Nepal, they weren't sure what to expect. All they knew was that Zenyatta, who had joined with them the moment they disembarked, had informed them of an unwanted presence at the temple, and that the omnic monks required assistance.

The unwanted presence turned out to be a ragtag gang of Australians, each of them some form of damaged thanks to the radiation back in their home country. Pharah had heard of the issues within the country, and the fact that they were less than pleased by any omnic presence.

Quickly, the team of five set off to start reducing the attackers, with Winston breaking them up and Tracer taking out the flankers. Pharah's responsibility was to fire at anyone who tried to take the central path through the temple, as well as attempt to incapacitate any of the ones who Winston and Tracer couldn't kill. Zenyatta tried to stay between Winston and Tracer's position, throwing discord orbs and harmony orbs accordingly, ensuring their safety and allowing Mercy to stay with Pharah so that she could damage boost her. If worse came to worse, the Valkyrie suit would allow her to fly to whoever was in need, but as long as all went well, she was better suited to stay with Pharah.

The mission was going well, most of the Junker's having fled once they realised how poorly equipped they were to deal with the situation and soon, the group of radiation afflicted criminals was beaten down to two stragglers: One that wore a gas mask that closely resembled the face of a pig. The other a hunched over man that bore striking resemblance to a rat; both of them currently inside and concentrating fire on the two airborne women while the remainder of the Overwatch team ensured that the Junker's who had fled continued to do so and didn't try to round back on the temple.

It should have been easy to take out the two stragglers, even without a rocket launcher, but the smaller one was moving erratically and firing his own weapon in a completely random fashion, with the larger one drawing in air from a gas canister every time he took splash damage.

It was beginning to get to Pharah. She couldn't get a direct hit on either of them, and a concussive blast was out of the question, seeing as she couldn't get a good shot behind them and firing in front of them would just push them further back onto the platform they were currently on. Not only was the difficulty in hitting them making her frustrated, but in the back of her mind she was aware that she only had a finite amount of fuel to stay airborne, and she probably needed to touch down sooner rather than later.

In an attempt to make some progress in the fight, Pharah allowed herself to drop slightly lower, giving the jump jets time to cool off for her to make a sudden manoeuvre to the left.

The actions of the next few seconds played in slow motion to Pharah.

She strafed to the left, and narrowly avoided the hook that the pig like monster threw at her, completely unaware that Mercy was currently positioned behind her until she saw the blonde woman come rushing past her with the hook firmly wrapped around her waist.

The hook dragged her right in front of the large man, who readied his scrap gun and aimed it at the position where Mercy's head was soon to be.

Pharah screamed her name but her rapid pulse stopped her from hearing herself. Thankfully, it distracted the Australian as Mercy arrived at his feet, his temporary inattention giving her chance to move backwards and attempt to fly herself back to Pharah, whose mind had become a pit of white noise filled panic.

Mercy was almost in the clear when the pig-headed bastard regained his concentration, firing the scrap gun at the woman who howled in pain as the nails and bolts shredded into the back of her Valkyrie suit, landing harshly on the ground close to the edge of the platform.

A second too late, the rest of the team arrived in the temple, having apparently circled back after chasing the others away. The two leftovers quickly made themselves scarce when they saw them, giving Pharah the chance to drop down and inspect the damage to her beloved girlfriend.

Mercy was on the ground, one arm beneath her as she reached out for Pharah with the other. Her face was contorted with pain, her wings were bent and shattered, her halo had snapped in two and her back…the armour covering it was shredded, bolts and screws embedded firmly in the freely bleeding flesh underneath.

Pharah wanted so badly to picked her up and cradle her, and she was about to when she realised Mercy was frantically shaking her head, trying to say something but failing as blood filled and slowly dripped from her mouth. Instead, she settled for kneeling beside her, hand hovering an inch away from her severely injured back as she covered her mouth and screamed for the woman who was growing weaker by the second.

She had to be forcibly moved away from Mercy by Tracer and Zenyatta as Winston carried her broken, barely breathing form back to the dropship, the omnic monk desperately trying to do all he could for her during the journey back to Gibraltar.

* * *

It had been over a week since the mission in Nepal. By all accounts, it was successful, but to Fareeha, it was the biggest disaster of her life.

Angela had been hurt, and very seriously so, almost having succumbed to her injuries by the time they arrived back at base where they learned the true extent of her wounds; aside from the superficial lacerations and barely embedded nails and bolts, there were some pieces of metal found deep within her abdomen, causing an almost deadly amount of internal bleeding. One of her kidneys had been so badly damaged that they had to remove it, her other kidney thankfully not having been hurt too severely. The worst injury of all had absolutely no contest whatsoever; her spine had been completely severed by the blast. If it wasn't for the fact she'd used herself as a test subject for her own nano-technology (something Fareeha and the rest of Overwatch totally did not know about), she would've been dead before they even got out of the temple.

Angela had woken up two days after the incident, but Fareeha hadn't been to see her yet. She told herself it was because Angela had been in and out of surgery, and then she told herself it was because she was probably doped up on enough painkillers to sedate a horse and wouldn't be much fun to talk to.

She refused to acknowledge the real reason as to why she wouldn't see her.

Fareeha sat, playing with her food when McCree sat across from her with his own tray. She hoped that he would just get on with eating, but she had no such luck.

"You alright there, 'Ree?" She glanced at him, noticing that his face was no longer swollen from his confrontation with Genji, but he was still a tooth down.

"I'm fine, Jesse." She continued to stab her fork into the potatoes that Lena had lovingly prepared for everyone as part of their dinner. She was lying, of course, and she hoped McCree would let it go. After all, it wasn't like he or anyone else knew of her and Angela's relationship. That, and that it wasn't really any of his business what she did or didn't do, although he was like an older brother to her, so he was probably going to make it his business anyway.

"Really? Because the doc's been up and aware since yesterday, and apparently there's only one person who hasn't been to visit her yet." He spoke matter-of-factly as he dug into his own food, clearly not falling for Fareeha's lie.

 _At least he's not pressing me for the reason I haven't been to see her._

McCree was quiet for a moment as Fareeha didn't bother to move. "She's feeling pretty low, y'know. Maybe you should go see her.". When she didn't answer him, he continued to press the issue. "I'm sure she'd feel better if she saw you. She misses you."

"I'm not sure why…" Fareeha mumbled under her breath. McCree heard her, but didn't understand what she said, asking her politely to repeat herself only for her to glare at him. She hadn't meant to, and quickly apologised for doing so.

Fareeha inhaled deeply through her nose, trying to put her newfound frustration at bay. She couldn't fathom why seeing her would make her feel better, especially after what happened, but when it became clear that McCree wouldn't drop the issue and gave her the single most pitiful look in the world, she realised he probably wasn't going to leave her alone until she went to see her and thus, she begrudgingly got up and left.

When Fareeha entered the infirmary, it took her all her strength not to burst into tears there and then.

Angela was on her side, looking horribly bored and sorry for herself as she read a copy of _Suspicion._ She was wearing a hospital gown that was left open and pulled down to just above her waist, her upper body covered in bandages and gauze, both being used as dressings and a way to preserve her modesty. An IV bag was dripping a solution into the tube that went into her left hand. She hadn't yet noticed her girlfriend watching her from the doorway.

Fareeha took a steadying breath before she spoke. "Hi, Angela."

Immediately, Angela looked up from her book, the sorry look she wore melting away into one filled with joy. "Fareeha!"

The look of total love in her eyes, the pure delight at seeing her; it was too much for Fareeha. She immediately broke down, her knees shaking as she tried to keep herself upright and failed, dropping to the ground as her tears fell freely.

The nurse in the room rushed over to her and helped her into a chair next to her girlfriend, giving the both some privacy by vacating the room immediately after. Angela put down her book and began rubbing her back while she made soothing noises, trying her hardest to calm her down.

"Fareeha, it's okay. I'm okay." She said, keeping her voice low and soothing while Fareeha continued to sob next to her.

"No…you shouldn't be here. This should have been me." Fareeha stopped for a moment to take in a shaky breath. "If I hadn't moved, he would never have got you and-"

Fareeha felt a hand on her cheek, the thumb rubbing in circles as Angela shushed her. "You didn't know I was behind you. You couldn't have known he would get me. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't my fault. It was his fault. All that matters is that I'm here now, with you.".

At Angela's soothing words, Fareeha began to calm down, even if her tears still fell freely. "You don't blame me?"

"Of course I don't." Angela gently tugged Fareeha's face towards her own and kissed her, the younger woman deepening the kiss and putting her hand on Angela's back, immediately recoiling when it was met by the feel of not only plastic and bandages, but cold metal that didn't belong to the nerve plates on the older woman's shoulders.

Fareeha leaned over and saw a white metal peeking out beyond the wrappings, the surrounding flesh raised and pink. If it wasn't for the curiosity at the new acquisition, she probably would've started crying again. Whatever it was, it was obviously some sort of medical aid to help with the fact her spine had been severely fractured.

"I created a cybernetic spine blueprint a few months ago. Never really had the chance to test it until now." The older woman shrugged as well as she could, given the circumstances, averting her gaze from her girlfriends. "They implanted it five days ago. I could feel below my waist as soon as I came around, and I managed to walk a bit yesterday, so it's safe to say it's a success.".

Fareeha was beyond ecstatic at the news. After being blamed for what happened, the thing that scared her the most was that Angela would never be able to walk again and would have to change her lifestyle to account for the change. Of course, she wouldn't give up being a doctor (the only thing that would make her give up would be death itself), but she wouldn't be able to go on missions for a very long time, if ever again, even if she wasn't over keen on them. This time when Fareeha cried, she cried because she was happy that Angela was okay.

She began to kiss her through her tears, feeling Angela's grin stretching across her face as they showed their affection.

Fareeha pulled back, ignoring the playful whine her girlfriend gave. "You're such a brilliant, intelligent woman." She kissed her again. "I'm so lucky you're my girlfriend." And again. "I love you.".

Angela froze at the words. In the two months they had been together, neither of them had said those words, though it wasn't for lack of trying. They didn't particularly mind not having said it yet; the relationship was new, and they were in an organisation that was currently illegal. They didn't want to waste breath on words that may be meaningless in a few weeks' or months' time.

Recent events changed that.

When Angela didn't reply straight away, Fareeha panicked that she'd overstepped the mark. What if she still wasn't ready to say that? What if Fareeha had just ruined the entire relationship? She thought she was trying to say that back on that fateful day, but maybe she was wrong and going to say something else?

The panic quickly disappeared when Angela said, "I love you too," before she kissed her girlfriend again.

In that moment, they had both never felt so in love with each other.


	5. Giving in to Each Other

**A/N: To the person who commented on the last chapter with ":Those three words: "Want sum fuck?""  
** ;)

When a combination of architects and Overwatch officials designed the layout for Watchpoint Gibraltar, they had intended for part of the roof to double as a viewing platform for incoming and outgoing aircrafts. It was purely coincidental that the platform also provided an excellent view of the old training yard 3, which had since been repurposed as a garden.

It was certainly never intended to be used as a picnicking area for two women at one in the morning.

It was Angela's idea. It was the middle of summer and thus still warm at night, the sky was clear and despite the incessant nagging from both Fareeha and Zenyatta, she had still forgotten to eat properly. Fareeha was 90% certain that the only reason Angela came up with this idea was because it was a way to stop her complaining about it.

They'd long since finished the selection of food they'd brought up with them and were sat gazing at the stars the lit up the sky, Fareeha resting her hand over her girlfriend's.

"It all looks so peaceful." Angela sighed, resting her head on Fareeha's shoulder.

Fareeha hummed in agreement, looking over at the other woman and finding her equally as beautiful as the night sky. "You know, we could go grab our suits and go up there if you want." She punctuated her sentence by kissing Angela just behind her ear. She broke into a grin when the older woman giggled.

"Yes, well, if we did that the sky wouldn't be so peaceful anymore, would it?" The moonlight highlighted Angela's features, and revealed the smirk she wore as she looked to the moon then at Fareeha. "I'm more than happy to just sit here under the stars with you."

Fareeha was going to say something about Angela being mushy, but was cut off when the other woman turned herself so that she could press her lips to hers. Everything Fareeha could've said died in her throat when Angela pressed her tongue to her lower lips, pushing lightly until Fareeha opened her mouth and allowed her to deepen the kiss, sighing with contentedness.

As Angela pushed her to lie back on the rooftop, effectively pinning her to the metal roof, Fareeha was absently aware that she should try to stop the impromptu kissing session. If anyone decided to come up here to get fresh air, they'd see them, and even though they had been together for five months, neither of them were ready to let the others at the Watchpoint know (Fareeha was fairly confident that Jesse had figured it out by now, but hadn't given much in the way of indication as to whether she was right or not). Currently, however, she really didn't mind the current situation.

It was only when Fareeha felt a hand that certainly wasn't hers caressing her inner thigh did she suddenly care that they were outside and on a rooftop. She'd be lying if she said she hadn't thought about doing this with her girlfriend for a while -before they were together, in fact- but their first time being on top of a roof was something she wasn't particularly okay with.

Reluctantly, she placed a hand on the other woman's shoulder and pushed her gently away from her. "Angela, please stop. I'd rather we didn't do this here.".

The smirk that graced the older woman's face was as gorgeous as it was dangerous. "Didn't do what, liebling?"

The hand that was resting between her thighs moved closer to the apex. Fareeha felt her face heat up exponentially as she grabbed the slender wrist that the mischievous hand was attached to, the limbs owner no longer smirking but instead keeping her face looking as innocent as possible.

"You know what, Angela. What if someone sees us?" Fareeha said as she glanced over at the roof access.

Angela smirked again. "And what a shame that would be." She stayed looming over Fareeha and for a moment, she worried that Angela was secretly into semi-public sex and that their first time would end up being out in the open. Her worry stopped when the older woman finally sat back. "But I suppose you are right. I don't really want anyone we work with coming up here and getting an eyeful either."

Angela got to her feet, and Fareeha happily accepted the hand she had extended, being pulled up into another searing kiss. One of her hands found its way into Angela's white-blonde hair as she deepened the kiss. She let out a sigh of discontent when Angela pulled away, but her disappointment didn't last long when she began pulling her towards the roof access door.

The brisk walk to Fareeha's room was filled with subtle gropes and sweet kisses. With every step closer to their destination, it felt like they had further to go, to the point that when they finally arrived and the door slammed, they both let out a sigh of relief.

Angela strode across the room and sat on the bed, looking around the room but not at the rooms owner. Fareeha noticed the sudden change in how she was acting. Before, she was definitely up for this, but now…now she seemed unsure of herself. Nervous.

"Are you okay?" She crouched down in front of her and looked into her eyes. "We don't have to do this if you don't want to."

Fareeha took Angela's hand and rubbed her thumb over her knuckles. She truly loved her, and didn't want to push anything on her. So what if she wanted to do it earlier? Fareeha recalled a few times in her life where she'd been willing to sleep with someone, only for the moment to arise and for her to have second thoughts.

"I do." Angela said. "I'm just nervous. I'll be fine." Fareeha was about to tell her that they could leave it for now, just get in bed together, cuddle up and go to sleep, but she was stopped when Angela kissed her again. "I appreciate your concern though. I love you."

Fareeha smiled into the next kiss. "I love you too," she said as she straddled Angela's waist and rubbed at her back through her shirt. She could feel the plates on her shoulders, and those on her spine. Angela sighed into her mouth and arched her back in response.

Fareeha felt hands tugging at the bottom of her shirt. She stopped rubbing at Angela's back and raised her arms above her head, allowing the older woman to remove the offending garment. She looked down to see blue eyes drinking in the sight before her. Fareeha knew her physique was impressive, and flushed at the realisation that Angela agreed when a large grin broke across her face.

She began rubbing her hands over her abdominal muscles, and Fareeha sighed at the contact. The Egyptian reached behind herself and unclasped her bra, letting it fall in between her and her girlfriend. Once again, Angela's eyes lit up and she brought her hands up to her chest, but she stopped just short of touching them. "Can I…?"

"Please." Fareeha began undoing the buttons on Angela's blouse and leaned in to kiss her as she fondled her breasts. She sighed into her mouth from the attention, which was broken briefly when the Swiss woman shrugged off her own shirt. She continued in her affections once Fareeha removed her bra as well.

Fareeha gently pushed Angela onto her back, but the other woman quickly hooked her leg around her thigh and flipped them so she was on top. "So that's how it's going to be, huh?" She laughed as Angela nibbled at her lower lip. The swiss woman let out a breathy exhale of a chuckle in response before running her tongue along the lip she'd previously captured between her teeth, Fareeha opening her mouth to let her inside.

Fareeha grumbled as Angela stopped her kissing and touching to stand up. She was about to protest the sudden lack of contact but the words caught in her throat when Angela unzipped the side of her skirt and let it fall to the floor, leaving her in just her underwear and pair of black heels that she promptly stepped out of.

"Wow, Angela…you're gorgeous." Fareeha said, completely aware of the fact all the blood in her body seemed to be running decidedly south.

"I'm not half as beautiful as you, Fareeha." Angela smiled as she stepped forward started unfastening Fareeha's jeans. She lifted her hips enough for her to slide them off entirely, still trying to wrap her head around the fact that this was actually happening, and not just something going on in a dream she was about to be woken up from.

Now that they were both in just their underwear, Angela returned to her position over Fareeha, who immediately wrapped one arm around her while the other grabbed at her backside and pulled her into her. Their lips found each other's again while they continued to grab at each other, murmuring words of affection and admiration, even when their respective hands found their way into the others underwear.

They rubbed and slipped inside one another, moaning and whispering "I love you," to each other over and over again in three different languages. This was everything Fareeha wanted, and judging by the mewls coming from above her, she wasn't the only one having certain desires sated.

They came together the first time. Fareeha hardly gave Angela time to recover before she flipped her over and continued their love making by exploring Angela with her mouth, the other woman returning the favour soon after.

When they were both satisfied and exhausted, Fareeha pulled Angela into her side as they settled together in bed. Every moment she had been with her, Fareeha's happiness grew more and more, and she was convinced that any minute now her heart would explode. Everything felt so perfect and so right.

Angela nuzzled into Fareeha's shoulder, prompting the soldier to kiss her on the top of her head. "I love you, ya amar. So much."

"I love you too, schatzi." Angela sleepily mumbled, her breathing growing slightly heavier only a few seconds later, Fareeha joining her in contented sleep not long after.

 **A/N: This is probably going to be the last update for a while for a myriad of reasons. I'm also writing another pharmercy fic but it probably isn't going to be posted on here. It will be on ao3, though (pseud is the same).  
**


	6. Nothing is Easy

**A/N: lol no I didn't forget to post this here haha I _totally_ meant to post two chapters at once lolol**

It could be considered impressive, going ten months in a relationship without having a single argument. Yes, there were disagreements and moments of frustration, but never an argument. At least until that morning.

It had been hours since Fareeha had spoken to Angela, and while she wasn't quite seething with anger anymore, she still didn't particularly want to see her. She knew that she should apologise and work through the quarrel like an adult, but she also knew that she was stubborn, Angela was stubborn and instead of making up, they'd probably end up in another petty argument.

It was much easier, Fareeha deduced, to sit alone in the kitchen with a cup of tea while she played a game on her tablet. She could easily avoid Angela, and the game helped take her mind of off things, even if she discovered she was probably in the top 10 worst Tetris players of all time.

Of course, she wasn't alone for very long as Overwatch's latest 'recruit', Hana Song, made her way into the kitchen. She'd ended up with them after they were found out. The majority of the world's governments turned a blind eye and left the UN to condemn them. South Korea, on the other hand, decided to send their youngest MECKA pilot to join them, but still denounced the group.

Fareeha had found Hana to be quite pleasant, even if she made repeated references to popular culture that she didn't understand and ended up making her feel significantly older than her 32 years. "Hey, Hana."

"Hi, Fareeha." Hana made a beeline straight to one of the cupboards. Fareeha didn't turn away from her tablet to watch her, not that she needed to see her to know what she was getting, already recognising the crinkling and crunching of a bag of Doritos. Hana truly did live up to the gamer stereotype. "Not off with your girlfriend today?"

God, even having Angela mentioned to her made her bristle up. Deep down, she felt guilty; knew the argument was needless and escalated far more than it needed to. "No…no we had a…disagreement. It's probably better to stay away from each other for now."

Hana loomed over her shoulder and started to watch her game, clearly not caring that she was causing Fareeha to lose due to performance anxiety and totally not because she was purely horrible at the game. "Oh. Well that sucks. I hope you two make up soon. You're like…the moms of Overwatch."

For the first time that day, Fareeha smiled. It was a nice sentiment, even if a little strange. She hardly had time to thank Hana for her words before she 19-year-old was leaving the kitchen, saying something about an event in a game and that she had to grind for something. Fareeha couldn't really understand what she was talking about.

Unfortunately, making up wouldn't be that easy. She really loved Angela, more than anyone or anything else in the world, yet for some reason that made it even harder for her to think about apologising to her, probably because then she'd have to acknowledge that they had yelled at each other.

She sat absorbed in her own thoughts for a while longer, her game and tea completely forgotten. They had a few hours to make up, and there wasn't really much point in seeking her girlfriend out for now. She was working, and likely wouldn't appreciate her turning up randomly.

In the end, Fareeha decided that the best way to speak to Angela would be to wait for lunch and hope that for once the woman decided to actually heed the advice of everyone and eat human food at human hours.

Of course, lunch came and went. The majority of people on the base came by the kitchen to grab something to eat, yet Angela was nowhere in sight. Most people left her alone, able to sense the tension in her from a mile away, although Genji stopped and spoke to her for a moment, asking if everything was okay between her and Angela, before he went off to find Jesse somewhere.

Once Fareeha was fully satisfied that her girlfriend was definitely forgoing lunch that day, she decided to go and stretch her legs and find something else to do on the Watchpoint. There was the gym, although she was fully spent from her anger earlier and didn't particularly want to exert more energy that she already had done. She could go down to the lounge area and talk to whoever was in there, but there was a high chance that Lena and Emily would be there, given that the latter was due to fly back to London in a few days, and she really didn't want to watch their affections while she was in a tiff with her own lover.

The only option that made sense to Fareeha, when all said and done, was to spend some time in the garden. It was easily the most tranquil part of the base, and she often found the Bastion unit that Torbjörn had begrudgingly allowed to join sat in the corner feeding birds. It always seemed happiest around nature. It absolutely hated when Torbjörn or Zenyatta made it come inside for maintenance.

"Greetings, Fareeha. How are you today?" The omnic monk that she hadn't noticed and that had just scared the crap out of her asked, resting his hand on her shoulder even as she jerked violently in surprise.

"Please don't do that!" Fareeha turned to look at him, wide eyed but not annoyed as she saw him nod in understanding and move his hand to his own front again. "And I'm…having a bad day. Angela and I…had an argument."

Zenyatta nodded in understanding, and motioned towards the bench for her to sit down. Ever since he came to the base after Nepal, he ended up being the designated vent friend. If ever there was anything anyone needed to talk about, he was there to listen, and if he wasn't feeling up to being someone's shoulder to cry on, he would quickly suggest other ways of self-help. It was easy to see why Genji liked him so much.

Having sat down, Fareeha took a few seconds to think about what to say before she opened her mouth. "It was over something stupid and it got way out of control. We ended up accusing each other of always forcing the other to do what they want, and called each other selfish. She had to get to the medical bay, said she had people to help, unlike me who gets to sit around on my ass unless there's a mission. I told her it was bullshit. I'm normally training or maintaining my suit; she hardly has patients at the moment." Fareeha stopped as she felt the anger rising in her once more. Anger at what Angela had accused her of; anger at herself for accusing her of the same things. Once she felt ready to continue, she did. "I feel terrible, but I'm worried that we'll both be too stubborn to get anywhere in terms of an apology to each other."

Fareeha let out a deep breath, having finished saying what she wanted. Zenyatta was silent for a few moments, perhaps considering her words and what advice to offer, but then he broke the quiet. "We all say things we do not mean when we are angry, Fareeha. The important thing to know is that those words are seldom anything more than an outburst of frustration. I have seen you and Doctor Ziegler together frequently, and there is little doubt in my mind that you have anything but pure and benevolent feelings towards each other."

Fareeha considered that for a moment. Ever since the incident with Emily a few weeks ago, more than a few people had told both her and Angela that their relationship was sweet, with Lena going as far as to say that she felt her teeth rotting whenever they were in the vicinity because of how sweet they both were. To see them both avoiding each other must have been strange for the people on the base.

Having reflected on the monk's words, and being satisfied that he was probably done saying what he wanted, she thanked him and made to leave for the infirmary, determined to speak with her girlfriend and set things right. After all, they only had an hour to sort everything out.

As Fareeha reached the door, Zenyatta spoke once more. "Doctor Ziegler feels very much the same way as you, currently. I told her the same thing I told you."

It made Fareeha feel slightly better to know she wasn't the only one feeling bad about what happened. "Thanks, Zenyatta."

* * *

Going to the infirmary with intentions of apologising seemed like a great idea while she was still in the garden, but as the distance between Fareeha and her destination grew shorter and shorter, she suddenly felt more apprehensive. She did want to make amends, but once again it came down to the whole admitting she'd been unkind to the person she loved the most thing. What if Angela didn't forgive her for saying things she didn't mean, even though she'd been told she felt the same way? What if she wanted nothing to do with her until she calmed down?

Fareeha became so wrapped in her own thoughts that she ended up walking straight into someone, reflexively reaching out to steady the person who'd she'd just bumped in to. "I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was- Oh. Angela. Hi."

The swiss doctor looked up at her then immediately looked away. "Hello, Fareeha."

They both stood silent for a moment, tension thick in the air. Fareeha opened her mouth to speak when she couldn't bear the suspense any longer, but was interrupted by Angela before she could get a word out.

"I…was coming to find you. I wanted to say that I'm…sorry, about earlier." Angela still kept looking away, one hand going to grab at the opposite upper arm. "I shouldn't have said what I did and I didn't mean any of it."

Fareeha nodded along, and took an infinite amount of interest in the ground as she began her own apology. "I'm sorry too, about everything. The argument got way out of hand and we both said a lot of stuff we didn't mean."

Angela hummed in agreement and Fareeha returned her gaze to her just in time to see a smile pull at the corners of her mouth. "You've been talking to Zenyatta."

"So have you."

Finally, Angela looked at her, her blue eyes still filled with a hint of regret but it was hard to see behind the amusement. "Did you tell him what the argument started over?"

"No? Did you?"

Angela chuckled to herself as she shook her head. "I did. He said he finds it strange that people claim to enjoy sports yet constantly fight over them."

Fareeha snickered at being told his reaction, and slowly broke into an actual laughter that felt good, the reality of what they fought over hitting her full force. When she realised Angela was looking at her confused, she tried to stop but ended up laughing harder.

"What's so funny?"

Fareeha wiped the tears from her eyes as she tried once again to stop herself, this time succeeding just enough to respond to the question. "We argued and avoided each other all day because of sports. It's so stupid it's funny."

Thankfully, the elaboration caused her girlfriend to see the humour in the situation as well. The way they acted, everyone must have thought that the fight they had was based on something serious, rather than neither of them wanting to sacrifice watching their sport of choice for the other. Fareeha wanted to watch the basketball because Egyptian basketball was seldom shown on television in Gibraltar, and Angela wanted to watch football because it was a quarter final and Germany were one of the teams (Switzerland had already been knocked out).

There was one tv in the base than could get sports channels, so it was one or the other, and they got into an argument over it and avoided each other all day. An argument that they were now both nearly crying with laughter over. It was _so_ ridiculous.

Once they managed to compose themselves, they decided to set out a compromise. They decided they would watch the first quarter of the basketball, then watch the football during the second quarter, basketball for the third and then football for the remainder. Chances were the basketball would end up overrunning anyway, so it was the closest to an even split as they could get.

Having made up and compromised, they walked hand-in-hand to the lounge area, still laughing and joking about their fight as if it hadn't been the major cause of a lot of misery throughout the day.

"You know, I really do love you, habibti." Fareeha said as she pushed the door open and held it so Angela could step inside.

"I love you too, liebling." Angela smiled as she walked through, Fareeha following her into the lounge.

Their jaws both dropped as they saw something that wasn't basketball or football on the television, the sport that was on there clearly having just started, Lena and Emily sat together on the sofa, the brunette turning around at the sound of them entering.

"Oh, hey loves. Hope you don't mind if me and Em watch the cricket."


	7. One Year Later

It had been a year since Fareeha had built up the courage to ask Angela on a date. A year since she decided potentially embarrassing herself was infinitely better than never being sure as to whether she was genuinely interested in her.

It had been the happiest year of her life. She'd never felt so in love, _so loved_ before, and it was that seemingly endless pit of love for Angela that made her sit and eat the lovingly prepared breakfast-in-bed that her girlfriend had made for her.

As it turned out, years of eating ready-made meals and snack food did not make for a good cook, and Fareeha had spent more than a few days off over the past year trying to teach her how to prepare real food that was actually edible.

Today was the day that Angela had rose early and attempted to make a feast herself. The plate looked nice enough; the waffles were golden, the toast was brown, the eggs resembled eggs, it was just when Fareeha took the first bite did she realise that looking good and tasting good were two entirely different things.

Still, she soldiered on, determined to finish something that the love of her life had made her. At least until the fork was removed from her hand and the other woman helped herself to some of the food. She grimaced as she began to chew, making to grab a tissue so she could spit the food out.

"I'm sorry." She wiped her mouth after she spoke. "You didn't have to eat it if it tasted that bad."

Fareeha looked down at the plate before looking back at Angela. "You tried to cook something for me, without any help! I wanted to at least try and eat it." She moved the tray from her lap, balancing it on the bedside table so that she could pull Angela into her lap and run her hand through her hair.

Angela sighed and leaned into her touch, resting her head on her shoulder. Fareeha smirked as she noticed her glaring at the tray as though the breakfast she had made had personally wronged her. She nuzzled her head into her neck and kissed the flesh there. She could feel Angela relax at her touch and as much as she would have loved to have just spent the morning cuddling with her in bed, she was still hungry, and she doubted her girlfriend had had her own breakfast yet.

"You know, ya amar, McDonald's is only a five-minute drive away, and I know how much you love their breakfast menu." Angela's eyes lit up at the suggestion, and she bounced from Fareeha's lap to look at herself in the mirror and make herself more presentable before offering to drive them as an apology for her cooking.

Fareeha just smiled at her eagerness as she went to go and get ready, stopping just short of entering the bathroom. "Oh, and Angela? Happy anniversary."

The other woman smiled and glanced at her reflection in the mirror. "Happy anniversary, Fareeha."

* * *

Even after driving them both to the fast food restaurant, Angela still felt as though she needed to apologise for almost poisoning her girlfriend with her 'cooking'.

"Fareeha, just let me pay. It's the least I can do." She begged as the crew member tapped the screen on the register to calculate the grand total of their pancakes and double sausage mcmuffin meal, which was £15. The more she asked though, the more Fareeha refused to let her, but Angela held her position. She would not back down. She would pay, even if it-

"Hey, Angela, isn't that Jesse?" Fareeha pointed out the window behind her.

"Where?" She followed her finger, but she couldn't see anyone she recognised outside, much less a literal cowboy. She looked back just in time to see Fareeha tap her card against the scanner, a smug grin on her face. Angela pressed her face into her hands. "I can't believe I fell for that."

The younger woman just laughed and patted her on the shoulders, giving her a quick peck on the cheek. "You find a seat, I'll bring the food, okay?"

Angela grumbled a response and skulked off to a table in the corner of the establishment. She continued to glare at her girlfriend from her seat, the other woman just smiling and waving at her while she waited for the food. She shook her head and chuckled. _How can I possibly even_ pretend _to be mad at that dork?_

After a few more minutes of waiting, Fareeha finally returned with the food. She'd explained the reason for the wait was because they had a trainee who was still getting used to the process. She had thanked them and made sure to give a disapproving stare at the manager who was clearly waiting to chew the poor kid out for being too slow.

"How heroic of you." Angela commented as she sipped at her mocha, knowing she would've done the very same. She was eyeing her hash brown as though it was a piece of gold, but she'd been burned before and wasn't about to subject herself to a week of the roof of her mouth being swollen. Of course, she had already burned her tongue on her drink instead, but she was doing well to pretend she had done no such thing.

Fareeha just responded by ripping off the end of the wrapper for the straw she had picked up and blowing the remaining paper off in Angela's direction, the wrapper hitting her square in the forehead. She giggled as she stabbed the straw through the lid of her milkshake.

"Why am I even with you?" Angela sighed, exasperated.

There was a glint in Fareeha's eyes and she cut up her pancakes with the flimsy plastic cutlery. "Because you're madly in love with me?"

Angela shrugged and hummed in response. She was right, she was in love with her, more so than she ever had been with anyone she'd previously been with. As big as a goof as Fareeha could be, Angela had to admit that she was incredibly cute about it.

Once they'd finished up their breakfast, they were stuck with the debate of what to do for the rest of their anniversary. They had already decided a few weeks ago to go for dinner together in the evening, but they hadn't planned what to do in the hours in between. Neither of them had to work today and after much deliberation, Fareeha came up with the idea to visit Alameda Gardens.

* * *

Once they arrived, they walked, hand-in-hand, around the botanical gardens, enjoying the sights, sounds and each other's company. Angela was rambling on about something to do with her nanotechnology, and while Fareeha couldn't even pretend to understand a word she was saying, she still found it endearing to hear the doctor talk so passionately about her work.

They were about to turn down the pathway when they noticed that area of the gardens had been cut off. Squinting, Fareeha could make out a woman in white and a man in a tuxedo, a gathering of equally well-dressed people behind them. She turned to look at her girlfriend who sighed before smiling at the happy couple, tugging at Fareeha's hand and pulling them off in a different direction, now remaining silent as they walked.

It was only when they managed to find a large pond and sit down on the wall nearby did Angela speak again.

"Would you want to do that?" Her voice was low, barely above a whisper.

"Do what?" Fareeha rested a hand on the other woman's lower back, rubbing small circles into it. She knew full well what Angela was referring to, but she wanted to hear it from her properly.

"You know…" Angela gestured back behind them, in the general direction of the wedding that was currently happening. "Get married?"

The blush on her pale face was hard to miss, as was the hope and anxiety in her voice. Fareeha thought on her answer for a second, a second that was too long, given the way Angela's face began to drop. The Egyptian hurried to answer at the sight, not fully thinking through how her response would be taken before the words left her mouth. "I don't know."

"Oh."

Fareeha could see the way Angela's heart dropped, and her own followed suit at the sight. "I mean, I never really thought about getting married and pretty much decided that it probably wouldn't be for me anyway but I mean if you want to then I wouldn't say no. In fact, in the future, I'd say yes in every language I know just because of how much I'd mean yes but not yet because we've only been together a-"

Angela leaned forward and kissed her to silence her. "I didn't mean now. I just wanted to know for future reference." Her voice was lighter now, the anxiety of before gone. She kissed her again, this time deeper as her hand cupped her face and Fareeha felt her thumb tracing over her tattoo.

When they broke apart, Fareeha felt the need to summarise what she was attempting to say. "The point is I love you, Angela, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but I don't want to make any huge commitments this early on."

"I can understand that, and for the record, I feel the same way, liebe."

They silently decided to not bring up the marriage talk again for a long time.

* * *

They'd barely made it to the wine bar in time for the reservation after the hours they lost in the garden talking. After Angela had successfully died and been resurrected by the whole 'Do you want to get married?' thing, they'd discussed a random selection of future theoretical events. Nothing too intense, just about whether they should move out and what type of house they'd like and potential future vacations.

As they were led to their table, the waiter grumbled about how they were about to cancel their reservation for a different couple that had been waiting for half an hour. Angela pretended not to hear him and happily took her seat across from Fareeha.

They both perused the menus they were given, but still selected the same meals they had every time they came here: Spaghetti and meatballs for Angela, and a vegetarian burger for Fareeha. It was the same anywhere they ate, at least since she'd let Fareeha convince her to try koshari whilst they were on a mission in Egypt. _That_ taught her to never take culinary suggestions from the Egyptian ever again, especially since all she did was laugh at her reaction (Angela had to admit that, in hindsight, it was delicious and her reaction hilarious, but she was never going to tell Fareeha that).

When their plates were set in front of them, Fareeha smirked at Angela. Against her better judgement, she asked what she could possibly be smirking at.

"Oh, I was just thinking about how it's been a whole year since I first saw your vacuum impression." Fareeha giggled as she made a start at her food, letting out a yelp when Angela kicked her under the table. "That wasn't very nice, ya amar."

"Because what you said was _so_ polite." Angela did her best to appear disinterested as she began to dig into her food. "Not that it matters, I'll make you make up for it later, and if you're a good girl, I might do something to show you I forgive you." She punctuated her last word with a dangerous grin, knowing she'd successfully shut the younger woman up with the way her eyes almost appeared to bulge out of her head at the threat.

For once, Fareeha almost matched Angela for speed in eating, clearly suddenly more intent on getting out of there and back to base; specifically, their room. Angela paid the bill as Fareeha went to wait outside.

They still had their pleasant stroll home and bantered back and forth. It was one of Angela's favourite things about their relationship, the fact they could joke around each other so easily, but even the light-hearted teasing didn't stop them skilfully avoiding everyone in the base that could potentially have slowed them down in their journey to their room, slamming the door shut once they reached their destination.

* * *

Fareeha happily allowed herself to be pulled into Angela's arms once she returned to the bed from the shower. She had considered throwing on a pair of pyjama's, but seeing as Angela hadn't bothered, she didn't see the point.

After a day of full activity (and a night of even more fun activity), she was already feeling tired, but Angela's steady heartbeat into her ear was lulling her closer to sleep. The slowing breathing above her was a good indication that her girlfriend wasn't far off herself.

She thought Angela had fallen asleep until she spoke up. "Happy anniversary. I love you, Fareeha."

"Happy anniversary. I love you too, Angela."

 **A/N: and with that we are halfway through!**


	8. Flying the Nest

**A/N: ooops I forgot to update this three times a row I am very sorry (at this rate you'll have the whole ending dumped on you guys)**

Over the past twenty months, Fareeha had learnt that it was silly to enter her room at the early hours in the morning after a night out and expect to find her beloved girlfriend in bed. Sure, Angela had gotten significantly better at not working late into the night, but whenever Fareeha spent the night with her friends, she knew the swiss woman would always seize the opportunity to overwork herself yet again.

So, she found herself in the medbay, eyes softening when she saw the woman passed out at her desk, face obscured by her arm, head resting on a rather large medical journal that gave Fareeha a headache just thinking about it.

She walked over to her, gently shaking her. "Angela, habibti, it's time for bed."

There was a grunt as Angela further buried her head in the crux of her arm. "5 more minutes. 'm nearly finished reading."

"Wow, I didn't realise you could read with your eyes closed." The Egyptian smiled, grin widening when her girlfriend mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like 'shut up' in German. "The book will still be there in the morning, so why don't you come bed with me?"

Finally, one eye lid cracked open and sleepy blue eyes met brown ones. "Only if you carry me."

Fareeha rolled her eyes, but made to pick up the older woman. Once she had her settled in her arms and was certain she wouldn't drop her, she made to leave.

That's when her eyes caught Angela's terminal, and even though she was only tipsy at best, she immediately sobered up when she saw the list of properties in Gibraltar that were for sale. She glanced at Angela and saw she was already fast asleep again.

She walked as fast as she could back to their room, carefully undressing Angela and putting her to bed before running to the bathroom to splash water on her face.

There was only one reason she would have been looking at apartments and houses, and while they had been sharing their quarters for a little over a year, actually living together was something else entirely. Fareeha knew she wanted this with Angela, knew she wanted to spend her life with her, but this was a pretty big step and it seemingly came out of nowhere.

 _It hasn't though…_ Fareeha thought back over the past couple of months, and suddenly Angela looking at properties didn't seem quite so sudden after all. Really, the biggest hint should've come from the incident three weeks ago, when the two of them had been getting intimate after a tough mission. In their haste to undress each other, they forgot to lock the door and now neither of them could look Torbjörn in the eye.

'This wouldn't happen if we had our own place…' Angela had said as she buried her face in her hands.

In the end, Fareeha decided to talk to Angela about it later. There was no point worrying about it now, especially when the other woman was in such a deep sleep that even the apocalypse wouldn't wake her.

* * *

Fareeha had woken up, showered, had breakfast, been on her morning jog and was in the middle of tea with her mother when she finally saw Angela shamble her way into the kitchen in search of coffee.

"Ah, good morning, Angela!" Ana gestured towards the clock. "Or should I say afternoon? Would you like some tea?"

The pure insult etched in Angela's features at the question made Fareeha choke on her own tea. Ana had always loved teasing Angela during Overwatch's old days, and Fareeha always enjoyed the banter. She was glad that she had recovered enough of a relationship with her mother to enjoy these moments again.

Angela finished brewing her coffee and took the seat next to Fareeha, grabbing her hand and lacing their fingers together as she leaned over to kiss her on the cheek. "Good morning, liebling."

Fareeha turned her head so that she could brush their lips together. "Good _afternoon_ , ya amar." She heard Angela's amused chuckle as she turned her attention back to her mother, who smirked at the two of them. "What?"

"Oh, nothing." Ana closed her eye as she drained the remaining tea from her cup. "Just wondering when the two of you will make honest women of each other."

They both gawked at her, even as Ana got up and said her goodbyes before going on her way. Of course, the moment Ana had returned and found out about their relationship, she'd relentlessly joked about the two of them getting married. Despite their reactions, neither of them minded too much, both realising it could be _much_ worse.

Once they'd both recovered from Ana's comment, Fareeha tried to think of the best way to breach the subject of Angela's search. She didn't want to flat out ask her if she wanted to move in together, but at the same time didn't want to beat around the bush. In the end, she settled for a compromise.

"So I saw what you were searching last night…"

"What was I…" The older woman's brow furrowed, no doubt trying to remember what she was doing last night. Fareeha could pinpoint the moment she remembered by the way her face reddened. "Oh…that. I'm sorry, I was just…getting ahead of myself. If you don't want to do that yet -or ever- I completely understand." Her face flushed further as she took a great interest in her coffee.

Fareeha cupped her cheek and gently turned her head to face her. "I do want to move in properly with you, habibti. Don't worry about that." Angela visibly relaxed at that, her face no longer doing its best impression of a tomato. "But you should have spoken to me first."

Angela apologised again, promising to do better about talking to her about major relationship decisions in the future, before downing her still hot coffee in a flash and running off to the medbay, the time of day suddenly dawning on her. As she left, she made a promise to sit with Fareeha and sort this out later.

* * *

Unlike last night, Angela was in bed before Fareeha was, the younger woman having just finished her evening gym training with Aleksandra. Her muscles ached, as did her wallet seeing as she lost a bet to the Russian. Being talked into betting money over whether she could bench press Aleks or not by Hana and Lucio had not been her greatest idea, and she knew she was going to be taunted endlessly when she told Angela later.

Thankfully, there were other things far more pressing to deal with as she settled in bed next to Angela and looked over the tablet. "Found anything good yet?"

"Not yet. I've got a shortlist of properties that you can look over later, but I thought you'd want to look for some together before I showed you the ones I liked." Angela tapped on one of the search results, a rather attractive looking building for an equally as attractive looking price. It suddenly looked significantly less appealing when all the images of the property were of the surrounding area, rather than the actual apartment itself.

Below that result was a gorgeous looking villa that Fareeha instantly fell in love with. Then she saw the ten million it cost and decided that it was the single most offensive thing she had ever seen.

After two hours of searching, they had managed to find precisely one property they both liked, and Fareeha just hoped that Angela's short list would happily bump up that number. 24 hours ago, moving to a place that would really be theirs wasn't even a thought in her mind, but now she hated the idea of not being able to find anywhere to live with the love of her life.

While Angela busied herself with finding where sleep addled Angela had saved the list she made, Fareeha looked her over. She was truly the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, smart and sometimes funny. Her heart still burst just thinking about her, let alone being cuddled up next to her side. "I love you."

Blue eyes glanced to meet brown. "I love you too." She returned her attention to the tablet and victoriously whispered "Yes!" when she found the file she was looking for.

Fareeha could immediately see two apartments that she hoped Angela didn't like too much, and another one that she did like. Thankfully, the latter was how she felt about most of the properties her girlfriend had chosen and after another hour of looking through the list, researching the apartments and houses and sending a few emails to estate agents regarding the five they had narrowed the list down to, they finally ended their search and allowed themselves to a contented and excited sleep.

After all, they had viewings to attend.

* * *

When the first apartment didn't turn out how Fareeha and Angela had hoped, they weren't worried. There were still four more potential homes that could be theirs by the end of the week, but then the second one didn't work out, and neither did the third, and the fourth one -covered in graffiti that wasn't present in its online pictures- was a write off before they even looked inside.

So here they were, everything resting on this fifth and final house. It wasn't too out of the way, and it was in a rather nice-looking area, unlike the second house that had clearly had some criminal activity going on as of late.

The inside wasn't too bad either. It definitely required a few touch ups and better furniture, but it was infinitely more liveable the fourth apartment had looked. It was even affordable, sitting squarely at their top bracket of £700,000. It had three bedrooms, and they had already decided to use the other two as a guest room and an office. The more they were showed around, the more they fell in love.

Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be, as the estate agent received a message that he quickly relayed to the two women. "I'm sorry, but someone just put an offer in for the house. It's no longer on the market." He clearly saw the way their faces dropped at the words. "It's possible the offer will fall through. I can call you to keep you updated, if you'd like."

"No, that's okay." Fareeha said, wrapping her arm around Angela and pulling her close.

"Thank you." Angela smiled as the agent showed them out.

They sat in silence for most of the drive back. Fareeha could tell Angela was as upset as she was, and as much as she wanted to say something to comfort her, she knew that them both being upset would get her nowhere. The best thing to do would be get back to base, grab some food, get in bed and find some random tv show to binge watch. Maybe they could rewatch Attack on Titan for the 7th time, or Death Note just to get Genji to stop pestering them to watch it.

"There was…one other place I liked…" Angela spoke, interrupting Fareeha's thoughts.

"Oh?"

"If you take the next right turn and follow the road straight on then turn left…it's there." Fareeha could hear how unsure she was about this. She couldn't imagine why she'd feel so awkward about this place. Even when they pulled up outside, she didn't see why. It was a great looking house, two stories with a sizable garden surrounding it, isolated but not so far out of the way that they would be cut off from anyone.

"I saw it three months ago. I booked a viewing as soon as I saw it, and it's the main reason I started thinking about moving. I love it." Angela smiled weakly.

"But?"

"But even if we cleared out both our accounts to buy this place, we'd still be £500,000 short." That was a pretty good reason for Angela to have not brought it up, but Fareeha had to admit that she was disappointed that a place like this would have to cost this much.

After spending another five minutes longingly staring at the house, they finally realised that they had to go back to base, to the tiny quarters that they shared together where they sat with chocolate and Death Note.

Somewhere between managing to watch the entire show in one go and watching the live action…'film', Fareeha knew what she had to do, waiting until Angela had fallen asleep before grabbing her tablet and going to her banks website, fully prepared to take out a big enough loan for her to cover the entire cost of the house (She had full faith that, upon finding out, Angela would transfer a large sum to her to cover part of the loan, if not offer to pay it back in full.).

She stopped short of beginning the application when her bank account appeared significantly heavier than it should've done.

She checked for the large transfer, certain that whoever dropped the massive amount of money in her account had made an equally as massive mistake. It appeared less of a mistake when, rather than one large payment, two transfers of the same high amount came up, both with a note attached to it.

 ** _Hope this covers it – UJ_** read the first note.

 ** _And I hope this actually covers it. Don't mention it, kid – UG_** said the second.

With notes like that, there was no way the transfers were a mistake. Fareeha thought long and hard about who these people could be, but refused to keep thinking about it when it began to dawn on her.

* * *

It took Fareeha an insane amount of concentration to stop her hands from shaking as she drove Angela back to the house they had looked at not three days earlier. The blonde woman was blindfolded so she couldn't see where she was going, and after the first five minutes was obediently quiet and stopped asking where they were going.

She pulled up outside, carefully got out of the car and walked around to the passenger side, opening the door and allowing Angela to exit the vehicle.

"Fareeha, where are we?" Angela asked.

"Take off your blindfold and see." Fareeha grimaced at how nervous she sounded, trying her best not to pass out as her girlfriend removed the fabric obscuring her vision.

Her brows furrowed in confusion as she looked at the house behind Fareeha. "Liebling, why are we…here…" Her voice quieting when she saw the sign, which now proudly displayed 'SOLD'. Her eyes darted back to Fareeha, then the sign, then Fareeha again. " _You didn't?"_

Fareeha smiled and nodded. "I did."

"What? _How?_ " Angela stuttered as she tried to find her words. "How did you afford this?!"

The Egyptian shrugged. "A couple…old friends found out somehow. They gave me -us- the money to do this, no strings attached."

She walked over to Angela and handed her the key, the shorter woman barely having gripped it before she was sprinting up the path to open the door, Fareeha jogging along behind her to find her stood in the foyer, looking around in awe.

"Welcome home, Angela."


	9. Time Off

Apprehensive as she was about the recall, Angela had grown to love her job. Now that the whole world didn't hate them, they received enough money for her to kit out her lab properly, and now she was making even greater strides than ever before in her technology.

That said, as much as Angela truly loved what she was doing, going on missions then being a doctor and a scientist was beginning to wear on her and, after a long discussion with Fareeha, she had decided to take two weeks off. (the fact that Fareeha also asked for two weeks off during the same period was a total coincidence, Angela was assured.).

She honestly hadn't thought she'd become too exhausted however, at least until today when Amélie had an emotional outburst and Angela ended up being unable to stop herself from rising to the bait. After apologising profusely for over an hour, she was certain the two of them were back on good terms and she felt comfortable leaving her in the hands of Doctor Markus for the next fortnight. She could still visit her anyway.

She pulled up outside her home, walking towards the front door as she rolled her stiff shoulders. (Doing a mountain of paperwork then driving was never fun.). All she wanted to do was get inside, have a shower and get in bed, preferably with Fareeha and a movie. After all, nothing was better than curling up in bed with her girlfriend and falling asleep in her arms.

When she stepped inside, all her previous plans flew from her mind. For whatever reason, a suitcase that was definitely hers was packed and in the foyer, and she most certainly couldn't fathom the reason why.

"Fareeha, are you home?"

As if on cue, the Egyptian appeared at the top of the staircase with her own suitcase in hand. Her face lit up and she attempted to get down the stairs as fast as possible. The slight waddle as she attempted to balance herself and the suitcase would've been amusing had Angela not been so perplexed.

She set the suitcase down and stood with a giant grin on her face. "Hey, so I figured since we never get to go anywhere other than when we're on a mission, we should go on vacation!" She reached into her back pocket and produced four plane tickets: two for Egypt, two for Switzerland. "Surprise!"

Angela stood dumbfounded. She glanced at the tickets, then Fareeha, then the suitcases and finally back to Fareeha, whose expression was slowly moving from pleased-with-herself to desperation.

"Surprise!" She said again, emphasising the existence of the tickets with a wave of her hand. "This is where you're meant to say: Vow thank you amazing girlfriend who I love zo much! I can't vait to go avay."

Instead of parroting what Fareeha said, Angela picked up on the imitation with a, "I don't really sound like that." Her face then broke into a smile and took a step closer to her self-proclaimed amazing girlfriend. "but thank you very much for the surprise, liebling." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed the taller woman.

Even though it was out of nowhere, going on a real vacation certainly appealed. In fact, the more she let it sink in, the more Angela realised how long it had been since she'd actually been away anywhere for purposes other than Overwatch and being a field medic. The most recent instance she could think of was when she was 25.

"So the flight to Egypt leaves at 4 AM and _before_ you start complaining, it's a five hour flight so you can sleep on the way there. We'll be there for a week then it's off to Switzerland. Sound good?"

It sounded fantastic to her. Okay, maybe not the 4 AM departure, (That, quite frankly, was a pretty big negative.) but the idea of going on her first vacation in 14 years with her much loved girlfriend more than outweighed the disgusting time she'd have to get up in order to not miss their flight.

Fareeha set the tickets aside on top of their luggage and wrapped her arms around Angela, who took the cue to nuzzle herself further into her chest and wrap her arms around her too. "I love you." She mumbled into her shirt.

"I love you too." Angela felt the words being punctuated with a kiss to the top of her head. "Now, I got your message about what happened, so I ran you a bath and laid out a collection of movies on the bed for you to choose from."

Now that was an equally as nice surprise, made increasingly better by Fareeha agreeing to join her in the bath, both of them running upstairs in the excitement over what they would be doing for the next two weeks.

* * *

Angela had made a lot of bad decisions in her life, some inexplicably worse than others, and watching Final Destination the night before she had to catch a plane was definitely in the top 5.

It was meant to be a fun, if gruesome movie. Laughing at the terrible deaths with the knowledge that more than a few of them would never occur in the real world. It was only when she was boarding the plane did she remember the point that started the events of the movie and suddenly the fear of flying that she had harboured as a little girl and long since gotten over came back full force.

Fareeha practically had to drag her to their seats. Angela nearly broke her hand when the plane took off due to how hard she was gripping it and even now, half an hour later, she wasn't fairing much better.

"If you're that terrified, just put on your eye mask and headphones and go to sleep." Fareeha said, clearly aware of her fear despite the fact she had her own eye mask securely in place.

"No. If I go to sleep, then the plane might crash because I wasn't awake to will it into staying in the air." Angela replied, not realising how ridiculous her statement sounded until her girlfriend uncovered one eye to look at her.

"You're serious?" Angela nodded, half expecting Fareeha to burst out laughing any second. Instead, she just reached over and held her hand. "We'll be fine. They check these planes constantly. The pilots are properly trained. If anything does happen, which it almost certainly won't, we have life vests, and we're close enough to the front to escape quickly, okay?"

While the words didn't force her fear of flying back into the ether, it certainly made Angela more comfortable. Still, she had to point out that as much as they check the planes, they probably don't check them 10 times before being satisfied, then a further 2 times just to be doubly sure the plane won't spontaneously explode like Lena does, the mention of the young pilot reminding her of something rather important she forgot to do.

"Who are you messaging?"

"Derek. Doctor Markus. I forgot I promised Amélie I'd visit her. I'm asking him to make sure she knows we went away and me not visiting is nothing to do with yesterday and that I'll see her when I get back." Angela said as she rapidly typed her message.

Fareeha hummed at the response. She knew as well as anyone how volatile the poor woman could be at times.

Angela put her phone away, settling back into her seat and gripping Fareeha's hand again, promising her that she'd try to sleep through the flight. Of course, as much as her nerves were plaguing her, it didn't stop her from making a quip about endlessly nagging Fareeha in the afterlife if she was wrong and they did crash.

* * *

Had they not been in public, Angela would've been throwing herself at the ground and kissing it the moment they got of the transport, but as it stood they were, and all she could do was listen to Fareeha's "I told you so," as they went to collect their luggage.

They found Angela's first, and she couldn't help but notice the panic begin to set itself in on the Egyptians face when her own case didn't turn up for another ten minutes. She was halfway through worriedly figuring out how she would fit in Angela's clothes for the duration of the vacation when it finally appeared on the carousel, practically throwing herself at it the moment she saw it.

"Now how come you never act like that when I come back from a mission?" Angela teased as Fareeha made her way over and directed them over to the exit.

"I believe you should be more thankful that I didn't treat the case the way I treat you when you come back from a mission." She punctuated her statement with a wink, and Angela could feel her face getting hotter by the second.

"I walked right into that one."

"That you did, amar, that you did."

The journey to the hotel was a significantly less nerve wracking affair for the swiss woman, mainly because it didn't involve a flying death can. There was a moment of concern when Fareeha pointed out she didn't actually know how to get to the hotel, but that was cleared up when they discovered the car had GPS (the majority of cars did, but some car rental places still enjoyed renting cars without them.).

The hotel itself was delightful. Apparently Fareeha had booked one of the biggest rooms in the place; one that had a separate living area and bedroom. "Just because we're only here for a week, doesn't mean we can't have some luxury." She had said as Angela unceremoniously threw herself on the sofa.

Angela was about to fall asleep when Fareeha gently manoeuvred her so she could sit down and rest her head on her lap. She smiled up at her, lifting her head slightly and pursing her lips so that they could share a quick kiss. "So, schatz, what's the plan for today?"

The woman above her feigned thoughtfulness. "I was thinking we go out, have some street fo-"

"No. Absolutely not."

Fareeha chuckled. "Okay. My second plan was we spend the day in bed together. Napping, cuddling, whatever."

Angela couldn't help but smirk. 'Whatever' certainly appealed to her, especially as it more than likely included the other two options. She giggled as Fareeha picked her up and carried her bridal style to the bedroom.

* * *

As good as the first day was, they both knew they couldn't spend the entire time in the hotel.

"We could visit the Temple of Anubis." Fareeha suggested, glancing up from her phone in time to see Angela wincing at the suggestion. "Or we could go visit the other pyramids, or the necropolis mum used to hide in, seeing as they turned it into a tourist site."

The other two ideas were much better sounding to Angela. She still remembered the horror that flooded through her when Fareeha was shot out of the sky last time they were at the Temple. It had taken her the past month to get comfortable with seeing the scar on Fareeha's stomach, and she certainly didn't want to see the place again so soon after.

In the end, they found the time to do both of the other suggestions within the day. Despite being half Egyptian and having spent a lot of her time in Cairo with Ana, Fareeha had never visited the pyramids before and was equally as amazed as Angela was as they walked around the small areas that they were allowed in. They took copious amounts of pictures to show their friends when they returned, and nearly missed the transport to the Necropolis as a result.

The Necropolis was not nearly as impressive, primarily because the tour guide was much stricter than the one at the Pyramids. In fact, this one seemed ready to tear someone a new one simply for looking at the wrong thing.

"This particular Necropolis is a small one. Not nearly as impressive as Giza." The tour guide droned, Angela barely listening as she stared at the various markings on the obelisk they were stood beside. "The site was not touched for thousands of years, until it was claimed as a landmark three months ago."

Angela's attention, or lack thereof it, was drawn to Fareeha as the taller woman let out a quiet snort. "Wow, I didn't realise my mum was a couple thousand years old.".

"I guess she really is a _mummy_." Angela joked, earning a grunt of disgust from her girlfriend and a glare from the tour guide who clearly heard their brief conversation, who otherwise continued doing his job, beginning the rush the tour as the evening drew on.

Angela and Fareeha had snagged the last tour of the day, after all.

The next day was spent visiting museums, and while Fareeha had clearly found the previous days' events interesting, Angela knew within 5 minutes of stepping through the door to the Egyptian Museum that the only reason her girlfriend had agreed to going was because that was what Angela wanted to do.

Angela made up for dragging her around museums all day, however, letting Fareeha take her around the street markets. Unlike where they had previously visited, nothing was in a language that she could understand, and she very quickly became totally dependent on Fareeha's Arabic to get around.

"Habibti, we are in Egypt, what language do you think we use? Hieroglyphs?" Fareeha asked and joked when Angela complained about not even being able to guess what words meant due to the different alphabet. "Reed foot vulture snake lion."

Angela smacked Fareeha's arm with her free hand, the other one currently being held. "If you're going to do that, I will not translate at all in Zurich." She knew Fareeha saw straight through her bluff in the same way she saw the amused smile plastered on her face. "Now can we please find somewhere that sells food?"

"Sure." Angela allowed the taller woman to pull her along until they arrived at an out of the way restaurant. Of course, she understood absolutely nothing on the menu due to where it was located and the fact it probably didn't have that many tourists visit.

When Fareeha pointed out items on the menu for her to try, she was wary, but after constant promising that she wasn't trying to trick her into eating something hot again, Angela finally ordered Ful Medames.

Thankfully her trust wasn't misplaced.

* * *

The remainder of the time in Egypt passed quickly and before long they found themselves on the plane to Switzerland, Angela no longer a nervous wreck at the thought of flying, the fear happily reverting back to a childhood memory and leaving her alone.

The hotel Fareeha had booked for their week in Angela's home country was equally as nice as the one she had booked for Egypt.

"Honestly, liebling, you spoil me." Angela commented as she put her and the Egyptians luggage away while the woman herself busied herself with ordering room service, both having decided on the way over to spend the day at the hotel like they had in Egypt.

"Yes. Well, you spoil me every day by loving me as much as I love you." Fareeha smiled as she typed their order in on the tablet, too busy to notice the way Angela blushed. It was time like this where the normally level-headed doctor felt like an infatuated teenager.

"Liar." Angela said plainly as she put the last shirt away. "I love you significantly more than you love me."

She glanced over to see Fareeha finish their order and place the tablet down, the taller woman walking over until Angela was sandwiched between her and the wardrobe. "See, that's where you're wrong. It's impossible for you to love me more. I thought someone as intelligent as you would know that, Doctor Ziegler."

Angela flashed her a smirk before reaching up to grab the collar of her shirt and pulling her down into a loving kiss that left them both breathless. "Let's just agree with love each other as much as possible, ja?"

"Oh, you're no fun." Fareeha huffed as she back away, clearly agreeing in spite of her behaviour.

After their food arrived and they finished it in rapid time, the lounged together on the bed, flicking through the television and finding absolutely nothing of interest. Eventually, Fareeha came up with an idea on how to pass the time on their stay in day that involved the use of the bed and the strange excess of bedding the room came with.

As childish as it was, Angela did enjoy being the joint Queen of a pillow fort for the rest of the day.

The time in Zurich passed very similarly to how it did in Egypt. They spent the first two days visiting various points of interest and museums. Much in the way Fareeha had visited various museums in Egypt and therefore had little interest in visiting them again but did so for the sake of Angela, the swiss woman found herself doing the same for her. The only museum she was fully engrossed in was the FIFA museum, which just so happened to be the one museum that actually seemed to bore Fareeha.

Following that, it was the standard visiting shops and eating out, at which point the week appeared to speed up and before long it was the night before they flew back to Gibraltar and back to work.

The two women had decided to go out to a bar, Fareeha being very enthusiastic about going to one in particular. Angela couldn't fathom why, the bar in question was really just a standard place that had the occasional disco and karaoke night, the latter actually happening to fall on that night.

"If you're dragging me here to make me sing, I am leaving you." Angela threatened as Fareeha pulled her through the door.

"Oh no, I'm dragging you here for a _much_ better reason." Fareeha let go of her hand and gestured to a table in the corner, a dark-skinned man sat at it looking at his phone briefly before looking up and catching the swiss woman's eye.

Angela quickly abandoned Fareeha as she made her way over to her brother, who stood up and held out his arms to hug her. "Falke, it's been too long."

"It has, it's good to see you." Angela felt him squeeze her tighter before letting go and moving to wrap Fareeha in a hug too. "And it's good to see you too, Fareeha."

They all sat and spent the next hour catching up on what they couldn't fit on their messages to each other. Apparently, nothing had changed in Falke's life, although he was considering seeking a transfer to Gibraltar to work as their team doctor instead.

"It'll be better for my relationship. Long distance is taking its toll on both of us now." Falke clarified when Fareeha questioned him. Angela couldn't help but feel a twinge of hurt for her brother and her best friend. She wanted them both to be happy, and the thought of them having relationship troubles was not a fun one.

"Plus, I'm over the Switzerland team now. We keep losing, Gibraltar doesn't." He added, quickly reverting the conversation to being light hearted.

The rest of the evening was filled with joking, beer and Angela wanting to curl up into a ball and die of embarrassment when both her brother and her girlfriend decided to get up on stage and partake in the karaoke.

"Now take this life and pull the, pull the trigger. Stop my pain." They sang together, both doing a gun gesture and pretending to shoot each other in such an overdramatic fashion that Angela genuinely thought she'd pull a muscle from cringing. Still, Angela ended up admitting to herself that the two of them sang wonderfully together.

Unfortunately, the bar ended up having to close for the night and while Falke walked the two of them back to the hotel, he had to leave to return home himself. Before he left, he promised to visit them at the Watchpoint in the near future.

* * *

The flight home was as fun as returning from vacation ever was, and yet Angela couldn't contain her excitement about actually being able to sleep in her own bed again, nearly driving off without her girlfriend in an attempt to get home faster.

It was when Fareeha was unpacking and she was relaxing on the bed that she had the cruel reminder that the end of her time off was imminent in the form of a text from Doctor Breslin-Kimishima – Amélie's therapist.

 _'Hi Angela. Hope you had fun, but I'm giving you a heads up that you have one hell of a mess to sort out tomorrow'_

She sighed as Fareeha curled up against her side, her phone being removed from her hand and placed on the bedside table. "I know it seems bad, but vacation isn't over until we go back to base tomorrow.".

Angela smiled as she turned to face Fareeha. "You're right." She leaned forward to kiss her. "Thank you so much for this. I love you so much."

Not bothering to get changed, they fell asleep in each other's arms, contented and relaxed.


	10. The Big Ask

Fareeha was in the middle of a strange dream involving Winston and a bowl of spaghetti when she was woken up by something bouncing on the bed.

"Wake up, Fareeha." The person called as they shook her in an attempt to rouse her.

Reluctantly, she cracked one eye open and was greeted by the sight of her girlfriend looming over her. "What do you want?" She asked, none too happy to have been woken from such an…interesting dream.

"To give you your card and present! It's your birthday today, remember?" The blonde woman reached behind her to grab the card and present, thrusting them both into Fareeha's hands as she groggily sat up.

"Oh right, I'm 35 now."

"Yep, you are officially an old lady." Angela teased as Fareeha opened the envelope, pausing as the statement sunk in.

"…you are 40." She glanced at Angela, who simply shrugged before gesturing for Fareeha to continue opening the card. The front of it was rather generic, but when she read the inside, Fareeha had a hard time holding back tears.

 _To Fareeha_

 _Wow, I can't believe you're 35! You are so old! (Although I'm sure you'll remind me I'm 5 years older.). I love you so so much, and you mean everything to me, even after 3 years of dating.  
Happy Birthday, schatz_

 _Love you always,_

 _Angela._

Below her name, Angela had put more kisses than Fareeha could be bothered to count, but she was certain she would match the amount later. She placed the card on her bedside table and wrapped Angela in a warm hug, nuzzling into her neck and saying her thanks.

She let go and turned her attention to the small present she had also been given and began to unwrap it, the task proving difficult as someone had apparently decided nothing less than an entire roll of tape should be used when wrapping a gift. Eventually, the dark blue paper gave way and Fareeha's heart found its way into her throat.

What the paper concealed was a small, velvet box. She looked over at Angela who simply smiled at her while she opened it with shaking hands, hoping beyond hope that her guess of what was inside was wrong.

When she saw pendant of two birds, one enamelled in blue with the other one in yellow, she was equal parts elated and disappointed that it wasn't a ring.

"Do you like it?" Angela asked, her smile dropping from her face when Fareeha didn't do anything other than stare at the jewellery.

The Egyptian quickly snapped out of it, pulling the necklace from the box and undoing the clasp. "I love it, Angela." She tried to put it on, the swiss woman shuffling behind her to help do up the necklace when Fareeha started struggling. "Honestly, I thought you were asking me to marry you or something.". Fareeha bit her tongue hard enough to bleed the moment the words came out of her mouth.

"Yes, well I wasn't." Angela's voice was quiet. "Not yet, anyway."

* * *

It was early afternoon when Fareeha ventured over to the base to visit everyone, having spent the entire morning at home with Angela. When she was younger, she hated not living her birthday to the full, but as she got older and started working with the army, Helix Security and eventually Overwatch, she found that hiding for half the day meant that when she did emerge, less people were around to pounce on her.

As such, when she entered the common room, she was only greeted by three people: Lena, Emily and Amélie.

"Happy birthday, luv!" Lena chirped as she blinked over to the kettle to make Fareeha a drink while the Egyptian herself sat across from the brit's girlfriend's, the other two women wishing her the same before she thanked the three of them.

Lena blinked back with Fareeha's tea and placed it in front of her. "You have a stack of cards on the coffee table." She gestured at the neat pile. "But you aren't allowed to open them until the party later!".

Fareeha smiled as she sipped at her tea. She wasn't one for parties, but when she said she wasn't really planning on having one, everyone on the base had decided to throw her a surprise party. The only reason it was no longer a surprise was because of the time Angela came home exhausted and mumbled something about it.

As much as Fareeha had said she'd pretend she never heard it, the Swiss woman still put herself in the line of fire by telling everyone that she had accidently told her.

"So…" Amélie leaned forward and rested her chin on her hand. "Have you asked her yet?"

"Do you think I would've come to the base if I had?" Fareeha looked off to the side, staring at the floor. "I decided last night that I'll wait until the party is underway. I'll take her outside, ask, and then we'll either both come back in ecstatic, or Angela will come back in while I run off to Antarctica to live with the penguins."

Emily shook her head, reaching out to cup her hands over Fareeha's, the contact tearing her gaze from the floor and into Emily's green eyes as she spoke with sincerity. "You won't have to run off. I'm sure she'll say yes. Everyone is."

Emily rapidly took her hands back at the sound of the door opening, Fareeha turning to see Angela stumbling in with her arms full of party supplies. She waddled over to the table with them and went to place them down. Obviously, she saw the card stack and threw them on the sofa instead before sitting at the kitchen island next to Fareeha.

"Afternoon." She smiled. "I see you're looking well Amélie. Have you been taking your medication?"

"I have. I'll need to collect some more next week."

Angela clapped her hands together. "Excellent. I'll have to do a physical – don't scowl, it's for your own good- but if everything is going well, I might be able to lower your dosage." She smiled at the still ever so slightly tinted blue woman before she turned to look at Fareeha. "And it's good to see you again too, schatz. Now, if you could please leave the room, we have to decorate. I think your mother wants you."

"And I love you too, Angela." She stood, put her now empty mug in the dishwasher and made to leave, bidding the other three women goodbyes.

* * *

As it turned out, it wasn't just Ana who wanted to see Fareeha, but Sam, her father, as well.

"'Ree, it's good to see you. You've really grown!" Sam said.

"It's good to see you too, Dad." Fareeha wanted to hug him, but video calling technology could only allow a person to do so much.

"So how is my beautiful daughter on her birthday?"

"I'm fine, Dad. I'm having a great day so far. It's so good to talk to you." She smiled, realising only now how much she missed hearing his voice.

Sam leaned back in his chair, clasping his hands together. "I'm glad to hear that. And how is your still beautiful mother doing?"

Ana chuckled next to Fareeha on the sofa, closing her eye as she shook her head. "You aren't winning me back that easily, Sam, but I'm doing okay." She opened her eye to look at Fareeha and smirk. "Our daughter is lying, by the way. She's a nervous wreck, but she doesn't want anyone to know."

" _Mum!_ "

"Ah, is it to do with that Angela woman? She's written to me about her a lot, and if they're as close as they seem, I can guess why."

" _Dad!"_

Not caring about the fact Fareeha was now a beacon of embarrassment, Ana continued to talk as if she wasn't there. "You guess correctly. Today's the big day, isn't it, Fareeha?"

The younger woman buried her face in her hands. "Please stop."

She looked up at the screen when her father began to laugh. "We're only teasing, 'Ree, your mother already told me about your plan and for what it's worth, I'm happy for you."

Fareeha felt the blush on her face begin to tone it down and as much as she wanted to berate her mother, she knew that she could always do that later. "Thanks Dad, that means a lot to hear.".

The horrendous embarrassment gave way after that, and the conversation very quickly became one revolving around catching up, with Sam apologising about not being there but promising that he would come to see her soon.

To make up for it, he left briefly only to return with a cupcake that had a single, lit candle placed in the centre. He sang Happy Birthday to her, Ana joining in as well, before blowing the candle out for her.

When the call ended, as much as Fareeha found herself missing her father more, she felt infinitely better having spoken to him.

* * *

The evening rolled around far too quickly after that. Fareeha had visited multiple friends during the day, and it was the same with all of them: Wish her happy birthday, then immediately ask her about her plan to propose later.

She'd ran into Angela a few times, but hadn't seen her much in the final hour leading up to the party, mostly because the Egyptian had spent the majority of that time in the bathroom, wetting her face and giving herself a pep talk in the mirror.

Even with everyone assuring her that Angela would 100% say yes, she was still worried that she'd be left heartbroken and £500 out on a ring that she'd be stuck with.

"You will be fine. All you have to do is get down on one knee, say "Angela, will you marry me?", put the ring on her finger when she says yes then bam, engaged." She told herself, putting as much confidence in her voice as possible, holding eye contact with her reflection for a full 5 seconds before she turned to the side and placed a hand on her forehead. "But what if she says no? Then I'll look like a needy idiot and I'll have to leave. Ya Allah, this is worse than when I asked her on a date!"

She frantically began pacing the room, slowly regretting that she ever told anyone about her plans. If she'd never said anything, she could let today pass by and no one would be none the wiser, but she _had_ told people and now she felt obligated to go through with it.

Her panicking was cut short when the bathroom door opened, a rather shaken looking Angela walking in then stopping when she saw Fareeha. Instantly, Fareeha's girlfriend instincts took over and she asked her if she was alright.

"I'm fine, Fareeha. I uh…tripped! Yes, I tripped on the way to the bathroom and nearly fell. You know what that moment of potentially falling feels like ha." Angela explained. In any other situation, Fareeha wouldn't have bought it, but she was far too nervous to question Angela over her blatant lie. "Everyone's waiting for you, you should go to the common room."

As much as Fareeha would normally have wanted to stay and chat for as long as possible, being in Angela's presence was enough to make the stress significantly worse and so she slowly left the bathroom and all but sprinted towards the common room, trying to create as much distance between her and Angela as possible.

She almost ended up sprinting into the door, only just having the presence of mind to open it before she ran face first into it. She'd barely taken a step into the room when she was bombarded by all her friends saying, "Happy birthday!" at once.

Fareeha knew she was meant to react, but all she could do was stand there like a deer in headlights, at least until Aleks walked over and wrapped her in a hug so strong she was certain she could feel her bones creaking from the pressure.

As the Russian let go, she leaned in to whisper in Fareeha's ear. "Stop worrying, everything will be fine.". She patted her on the back and gently pushed her towards the rest of the party goers before she left the room, Mei close behind her.

Fareeha focused on the now, relying on it to help her get through thanking everyone for coming. The more people she spoke to, the calmer she felt, especially when she stopped for a small talk with Satya, the Indian woman having one of the most calming influences Fareeha had ever known.

She ended up feeling suitably relaxed when Aleks and Mei finally returned with Angela in tow. In order to keep herself from freaking out again, she greeted her girlfriend and immediately went to tackling the cards that had been piling up since yesterday.

Some of them were goofy, some of them were sweet, some were a combination of the two, but each one made Fareeha smile and feel loved by her friends. Unfortunately, she got to the end of the pile far too quickly, but instead of allowing the stress to overcome her again, she steeled herself and stood, taking long strides over to Angela who stood across the table from Fareeha.

"Angela, can I talk to you outside for a minute?" She grabbed her hand the moment the blonde woman nodded, pleasantly surprised that her hand didn't feel as cold and clammy in Angela's as she had expected to.

She led her through the glass doors and walked her to the cliff that overlooked the ocean, holding both of her hands as she turned to face her, willing herself to stop shaking.

Fareeha was about to open her mouth when Angela spoke before her. "Fareeha, I have something I wanted to give you."

The Egyptian woman let go of her hands, watching as Angela went to reach into her jackets pocket. As much as Fareeha wanted to see what it was, she quickly placed a hand on her upper arm. "Wait, I have something I wanted to give you first."

Angela stopped all her movement, eyes meeting Fareeha's as she slowly pulled her hand from her pocket, not having removed whatever Fareeha's gift was. "Me? But it's your birthday, and I really _really_ want to give you this.".

Fareeha could feel her stomach doing summersaults, her knees getting weak. As much as she had dreamed of proposing to Angela, she really wanted this over and done with. "Okay, here's the plan. We close our eyes, hold out the present, count to three, then open our eyes.".

Angela nodded before she closed her eyes, Fareeha taking that as her queue to close her own and get on one knee and grab the ring box from her pocket, grimacing at how much she could hear her clothes shuffling against themselves.

"Ready?" She asked.

"Ready." Angela replied quietly.

"3…2…1..."

When Fareeha opened her eyes, she expected to be looking up at Angela, not still eye level with her.

And then she saw why.

The Swiss woman was also on one knee, her arms outstretched in front of her. In her hands was a jewellery box that contained a single ring adorned with yellow and blue topaz, much like the one in Fareeha's hands.

They both stared at the rings and then each other, tears and grins forming as they gently removed the rings from each box and placed it on each other's ring fingers.

They had their answer.


	11. The Big Day

Yesterday, Fareeha felt fine. She wasn't nervous, or scared. If anything, she was excited.

Unfortunately, that was no longer the case as every minute that passed filled her with an unending sense of dread. At first, she easily dealt with it. She'd managed to do her light makeup for the day, easily put her suit on, she'd even managed to recite all of her vows off by heart (although she was still taking the scrap of paper with them on with her anyway) without so much as a nervous shake. It was only when Jesse showed up with the rings did her nerves take a sudden nose dive.

"Are you having second thoughts?" Ana asked after Fareeha had been staring at the ground for five minutes without so much as making a move to finish getting ready.

"No!" The word came out harsher than she had intended it to and she winced. "I'm sorry. I just…I don't know…I want to do this. I want to get married. I'm just nervous.".

Fareeha felt the space next to her on the sofa shift, followed by Jesse's arm wrapping around her and pulling her into a side hug. "Now c'mon, 'Ree. You've gone into numerous war zones, and you're nervous about a wedding?"

Fareeha considered his words for a moment, letting the thought he planted settle in her mind before she responded. "Honestly, I'd rather be going into a war zone."

Fareeha watched as Ana shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose before grabbing the red tie that was meant to complete Fareeha's suit. Her mother knelt down in front of her and began putting on the tie.

"Fareeha, I know how much you both want this. I've seen how much the two of you have been looking forward to today." Ana said as she focused on finishing the tie. "I never got married, so I don't fully know how you feel, but if you are truly scared from just the anticipation, just focus on how good it will feel when you're finally married.".

Fareeha let out a quiet noise of acknowledgement as she stared at her shoes while Ana stood up. Jesse stood a moment later, grabbing Fareeha's hand and pulling her up also. Her body felt like lead as she felt her mother's and best friend's eyes upon her.

"Wow, 'Ree." Jesse breathed out.

"Who knew my daughter could be so handsome?" Ana beamed directly after.

Fareeha forced herself to look up, and felt tears fill her eyes at the pride in Jesse's and Ana's. She fought her nerves to ask if she truly looked okay, and even managed a laugh when Jesse commented about how Angela was one hell of a lucky woman.

It was that comment that made her wonder how her fiancée was faring and after a moment's thought, she decided that Angela was probably nowhere near as terrified as she was.

* * *

Angela was not faring well at all. She'd felt fine all morning, joking around with her brother and best friend, but when it came time for her to go to the bathroom to put her dress on, she very nearly had a panic attack.

She sat on the toilet seat and stared at the dress that was hanging against the door. The perk of getting married in Ilios was that she could comfortably sit in just her underwear without freezing while she had an internal meltdown from all the stress of the upcoming events.

She was pulled from the white static of her mind by a faint knock on the door. "Angela, are you okay?" It was Falke. When she didn't answer, he knocked again. "Are you decent?"

Realising that he was going to come in unless she said something, she forced out a quiet, "no." To ensure she was heard, she spoke again, "no, I'm not."

She could hear quiet whispering beyond the door. Next time someone addressed her, it was Genji. "Can I come in?"

She considered her answer for a moment. If she let him in, he'd see her in her underwear, but then again, it wasn't as if it was anything he hadn't seen before. Besides, he was arguably one of the people she was most open with, next to Falke. The only person she was more open with was Fareeha.

"You can come in." She mumbled when she made her mind up, barely loud enough to be heard. Genji slipped through the door with such speed that if Angela hadn't been watching it from the corner of her eye, she would've missed it.

"You're not even dressed yet?" He asked, glancing to the dress next to him. Angela tried to answer, but the sound caught in her throat as tears she didn't even know she'd been fighting back began to fall.

Genji rushed forward and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. "Oh, Angela." She wrapped her arms around him and she sobbed into the cool metal of his shoulder. He gently shushed her, slowly rubbing a hand up and down her back in a soothing motion until her tears slowed.

When he moved back from the hug, Angela wiped at where her tears had fallen. "I'm sorry, I'm just so scared and excited about today I just didn't know what to do." She pulled her hand away and saw a wet, black smudge. She ruined her makeup. "I'm sorry."

Genji grabbed for some toilet paper, wet it and used the tissue to wipe the remainder from her face. "Don't worry, I'll fix it after you have your dress on.". His scarred lips curled up in a smile as he threw the tissue away and helped her stand before turning to grab her dress.

When they both emerged from the bathroom, Falke was half reclined on the sofa on his phone. Angela had enough time to see that he was messaging Jesse before her brother saw her and locked the phone, so he could stand and look at her, tears coming to his eyes.

"There's my beautiful, big sister." He stepped forward to hug her as Genji fetched his makeup kit.

As Angela sat down to let Genji redo her makeup, she did her best to swallow her nerves down and let the excitement grow for the day ahead.

* * *

In the months leading up to the wedding, Fareeha and Angela had debated back and forth whether they'd go down the aisle together or not. It was due to a long discussion four days ago that Fareeha was walking towards the alter with only her mother at her side, her father having gone up the aisle first with Jesse closely behind him.

Fareeha walked by all her friends and from her peripheral vision, she could see them all turning to look at her and smiling. It did nothing to help her current anxieties, and thus she focused solely on Reinhardt who would be officiating. When she finally reached the front, it took a remarkable amount of strength to keep her legs from giving out from under her.

She watched as her mother walked off to stand to her right, Ana immediately beginning to quietly banter back and forth with Sam. Fareeha glanced over to Jesse, who gave her a reassuring smile. She took a deep breath to try and steady the remaining nerves, but the effort was in vain as Lucio started playing the entrance music for the other bridal party, which meant only one thing.

Angela was here.

Genji arrived at the front first, Zenyatta closely behind him. She hoped that with how quickly they appeared, that Angela too would appear quickly, so she could focus so intensely on how undoubtedly gorgeous she looked, that she forgot all her nerves.

The time it took for Angela to reach the alter seemed never ending, but eventually Fareeha saw white out of the corner of her vision and saw Falke stepping away to take up his spot on Angela's left.

She turned to look at Angela, ready to recite the compliment on her appearance that she had recited for days leading up the event, but found her breath stolen from her lungs when saw her.

"Wow…" was all she managed.

Angela herself appeared at a loss for words, but eventually settled for, "You look amazing!"

Reinhardt cleared his throat and began his speech. It fell on deaf ears, at least in regard to Angela and Fareeha. The two women stared at each other, and with each passing moment their grins grew wider as the stress began to melt away. This was really happening.

Fareeha was so entranced by the woman in front of her that it took her mother hastily whispering, " _your vows!_ " for her to snap out of her stupor.

Her mind drew a blank as she drew the paper from her pocket, glancing between it and Angela as she read. "Angela. You are the most beautiful and intelligent woman I have ever met. No one has ever made me so thankful to be able to fake confidence as you have, especially in the times where I was so scared of asking you something I considered running away to Antarctica." The wedding party chuckled as did Angela, who covered her mouth with her hand. "I love you, and every day you are with me is the best day of my life. I'm so lucky to have you, and I can't wait for you to be my wife.".

The crowd let out a chorus of 'awws' as Angela carefully wiped at her eyes. When it was her turn to speak, she didn't need a piece of paper to remind her.

"Fareeha. I have never met anyone like you, and no one has ever made me as happy as you have. Every day I feel like the luckiest woman alive to have you and I hope to have you for the rest of my life, even with all your awful puns." Again, the crowd laughed as Fareeha smiled adoringly.

Reinhardt then called for the rings, Jesse grinning madly as he walked over and handed the gold band to Angela and the blue tinted band to Fareeha. With shaking hands, they carefully placed the bands on the others finger.

"If there are any reasons why these two should not be married, please speak now or forever hold your peace." Fareeha just caught sight of Lena's smirk as she began to raise her hand, Amélie grabbing it and slowly moving it back to her lap while Emily glared at her. "Then I now pronounce you wife and wife. You may kiss."

They wrapped their arms around each other as their lips met.

They had never been happier than in that moment.


	12. Some Things aren't Meant to Be

**A/N: Wow hello okay this chapter is pretty sad. As in, it involves failed conception, miscarriage and one of them finding out she is infertile. Now if reading that will cause any harm in any way possible, skip ahead to the next chapter. It's far happier.**

When Angela and Fareeha had made the monumental decision to expand their family, neither of them expected it to be so difficult.

Science was at a point where two people who naturally wouldn't be able to have a child together could now do so through cell manipulation. They'd decided that, with Fareeha currently in the process of becoming Strike Commander, it would be better for Angela to be the one to carry the child.

When the first attempt didn't result in a pregnancy, neither Angela or Fareeha worried too much. By the eighth attempt, they started to grow concerned, but assumed the lack of success was down to Angela now being 45 more than anything else.

They were both on their way home after the seventeenth attempt. The first time, they were excited even though they both knew it probably wasn't going to work straight away, but this time they sat mostly in silence until Angela quietly spoke up.

"If it doesn't work this time, I don't want to try anymore.". Angela stared at her hands, both currently resting on her lower abdomen. She didn't want to look at Fareeha. She didn't even want to tell Fareeha, but she knew she had to make it clear, especially if she was sat staring at another negative symbol in a months' time with Fareeha encouraging her to try again.

Fareeha sighed. Angela continued to stare at her hands, and she watched in silence as one of her wife's hands gently unfolded hers, so she could hold one. "I understand. We don't need to talk about it now, but there's always other options after this". Angela felt a faint smile ghost her lips as her hand was squeezed reassuringly. "I support whatever you want.".

"Thanks for understanding." Angela finally brought herself to look at Fareeha. She smiled at her, and her wife quickly glanced over to return the smile.

* * *

If there was anything Angela had grown to hate over the past two years, it was that pregnancy tests still took two minutes to actually show a result. She still remembered the first few times, how her and Fareeha sat excitedly discussing the future, only to be sat there in disappointment as the second line never showed up.

Now, they both sat in silence, Fareeha scrolling through her phone while Angela stared at the result window, as if she could will the second line into existence. She truly wanted it to work this time, she didn't want to give up.

The shriek she let out when the second line slowly faded into existence caused Fareeha to throw her phone with such force that it hit the ceiling then promptly fell down and smacked her on top of her head.

"Did it work?" Fareeha asked, grinning madly as she nursed the top of her head. She looked at the pregnancy test that Angela was still staring in awe at. She said nothing in response, and did nothing as Fareeha gripped her in a tight hug.

It finally worked.

* * *

Angela knew something was wrong.

Shortly after she had the positive test, the morning sickness began, as did the breast tenderness. Out of nowhere, both of those things stopped, but that wasn't to say she felt perfectly okay. She still felt nauseous, but it was different.

It was when she was working and suddenly had severe cramping and had to run to the bathroom did she understand why. One of the other doctors in the medical wing tended to the situation discreetly. He kept asking Angela how she was doing, and if she wasn't already distraught, it would've annoyed her.

The moment the doctor confirmed everything was done, Angela made a beeline to Fareeha's office, not even wanting to consider what she was supposed to say to her, only being able to break down in tears the moment she stepped through the door and she heard it click closed behind her.

Fareeha's arms around her told her she understood and as she felt tears that weren't her own land on her shoulder, she knew she wasn't alone in her sadness.

* * *

"It's my fault…" Angela said quietly as she sat against the door, Fareeha next to her.

Fareeha wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "No it's not."

Angela shook her head. "It is." She carefully considered what she was going to say next. "I experimented on myself.".

A heavy silence fell between them, broken by Fareeha letting out a weak, "I know.".

"You don't-" Angela's breath hitched in her throat. "You don't know about this one…"

It had been a stupid decision she made over 20 years ago. Overwatch had only just began to take an interest her. She was working on a new batch of nanomachines, one that was meant to act as a short term cover all vaccine for areas in crisis. It worked by identifying cells normally within the host, and attacking anything that wasn't supposed to be there and convinced that she had made them correctly, she decided to test them on herself.

The three days following injection were spent either lying in bed with a cold towel on her forehead or in the bathroom and she deemed it unfit to use. She later discovered that she hadn't programmed their kill switch correctly, and that they would attack even neutralising nanomachines, leaving her stuck with them forever.

She had eventually figured out a solution to stop them attacking other nanomachines by retroactively changing what little code she still could, and she thought she could neutralise them again, only for them to immediately go hostile against the neutralisers.

At the time, she left it, certain that she'd prevented them having an overly negative effect. Now she realised that their tendency to attack anything non-self had rendered her virtually unable to conceive, and definitely not able to carry a pregnancy.

As she explained this to her wife, she broke down into tears again, Fareeha quickly moving from her spot to wrap her arms around her and hold her close.

They didn't speak much after that, only holding each other close as they realised that, in all the years they had been together, this was the first time they had ever been truly heartbroken.


	13. Baby Bird

Three years ago, Fareeha and Angela had been on their weekly walk around town. It had been mostly the same as it always was, but they instead decided to turn down a different path and found themselves at a children's playground.

The two of them never really discussed children until that moment, neither of them really expecting their lives to get to the point where it would be possible, but with Overwatch having more than enough field medics for Angela to not really have to go on missions anymore, and with Fareeha beginning the process to become the Strike Commander, they didn't have to worry about any potential child losing a parent because one of them had to go on a mission and didn't come back.

They'd looked at their options extensively, and eventually settled on taking the cell modification route. At first, the plan was for Angela to be the one to carry the child, but after two years of failed attempts and her revelation that she was unable to have children, they'd stopped looking into it.

That was until a month ago.

They decided there would be one last attempt, and that final attempt would be on Fareeha. If it didn't work, then they had since come to terms with not having children. If the desire ever hit them hard again, there was always the option of adopting a child, but this was the last chance to have a child that was biologically theirs.

"I mean, I don't think it worked. I don't feel any different.". Fareeha noted as she placed the pregnancy test on the counter. "And I've had periods randomly be late before.". She added, trying not to get her hopes up. She carried on talking about how she was certain it would be negative, staring at the bathroom door knowing that the time for the result would probably pass faster if she didn't keep staring at the results window. A memo Angela clearly hadn't got.

"Not only does nothing feel different, but it's not that likely anyway. It was just one attempt."

"Fareeha…"

"Plus being a Strike Commander is stressful, so that probably doesn't help."

"Fareeha."

"and I'm 41 now, so the chance is even lower…"

"Fareeha!" Angela shook her to get her to pay attention.

"What?"

"You're pregnant!"

" _What!?"_ Fareeha whirled around and grabbed the stick on the counter. Sure enough, it was showing positive. It had worked. She was pregnant and, if everything worked, in 9 months' time both her and Angela would be mothers.

Angela threw herself at her, hugging her tightly before backing off and resting a hand on her stomach, grinning madly as Fareeha found herself doing the same.

* * *

They visited the doctor the next day, who did a quick scan and a few tests to verify that the pregnancy was definitely a viable one, before booking them in for another appointment at 12 weeks.

The time it took for that prenatal appointment to arrive seemed to go on forever, especially when they were both acutely aware that anything could happen in the first trimester.

Thankfully, the appointment went well, the foetus well on its way to growing into a happy and healthy baby. They got to hear the heartbeat, and both women couldn't help but beam at the sound. Afterwards, they were offered a picture from the scan, in case they wanted to keep it in a scrap book, and they eagerly accepted it before making another appointment for a months time.

Coming out of the appointment, knowing that Fareeha had gotten to twelve weeks and everything was fine, they made the decision to begin telling people. Angela had wanted to gather all their friends and tell them at once, but Fareeha very quickly stopped her, voicing her opinion that they should tell their families first.

Ana took the news well, as did Sam when they called him. Fareeha found both her parents were more than ecstatic at the thought of becoming grandparents, her father even making promises to move so that he could be closer to his grandchild.

"Do you know what it is?" He asked excitedly, Ana letting out a huff and rolling her eye.

"Of course, they don't. She's three months. They won't know for at least another two." She stated matter-of-factly before she turned to face Fareeha. "But just so you know, whether I have a grandson or granddaughter, I'll love them no matter what.".

Angela scratched the back of her head while Fareeha rested her hand and idly stroked her ever so slightly expanded stomach. "Actually, the way they do this, it takes longer culture the artificial sperm to carry a Y chromosome, and we didn't want to wait." Angela explained.

Fareeha watched as Ana's eye widened and Sam's face lit up with joy. "I'm going to have a granddaughter?!" He asked excitedly, Fareeha feeling the emotion flood through her as she nodded.

Ana chuckled, letting out a snide comment about how, if Sam _did_ move, he would have to deal with four Amari's. He shot her down instantly, saying that he loved a challenge.

Soon enough, Sam had to go and disconnected the call. Fareeha was about to leave with Angela when Reinhardt walked in, clearly intent on seeing Ana if the confusion on his face at seeing the couple was anything to go by.

"Angela, Fareeha, to what do I owe the pleasure?" He greeted, as if he hadn't already seen them multiple times this week.

"Ya hayati, my daughter and daughter-in-law have some pretty big news to tell you." Ana smirked

Reinhardt glanced over at the two of them. Fareeha opened her mouth, heart pounding in her chest much like it had done when she told her parents about the pregnancy, but the words of announcement never had a chance to leave her mouth.

"You're pregnant?" Reinhardt gasped, gripping Fareeha in a gentle hug she genuinely didn't think he was even capable of giving.

"How…how did you know?" She asked, more than a little confused.

"Eh, you were looking a little soft around the middle." He lightly patted her stomach. Fareeha really wasn't sure whether or not she should be offended, but simply settled for accepting the congratulations that he offered in the end.

After that, they made their way over to the Ziegler residence, intent on telling just Falke and Genji about the pregnancy. When they arrived, they also found Zenyatta sat in the living room, enjoying a quiet spot of meditation alongside Genji.

"It's nice to see you both." Falke said as he returned from the kitchen with a cup of coffee for Angela and a glass of water for Fareeha. Three months in and she was already begrudging Angela for still having the ability to consume caffeine. "So, what did you two want to talk about?"

Fareeha was about to announce the pregnancy to them, but decided to stop and let Angela. After all, she was the one who told her parents.

"Fareeha and I are having a baby!"

Falke's jaw dropped open as Genji went from sitting cross legged on the floor to being stood up on the sofa in one jump. "I'm going to be an uncle!?" The volume of his shout startled Zenyatta to the point that his orbs stopped floating around his head for a second and clattered to the floor.

"Yes, you and Falke are both going to be uncles. In half a year, you two will have a baby niece.". Fareeha smiled as Genji began jumping up and down next to Falke who started to cry.

"Blessings be upon you both, and your daughter. She'll no doubt be strong and intelligent like her mothers.". While Zenyatta was incapable of facial expressions, Fareeha could very clearly hear the smile in his voice.

Telling Jesse and Hanzo in the evening went much the same, with Hanzo being the sensible one while Jesse immediately went to grab alcohol to toast the new baby who was still half a year away, and after that, they gathered those who didn't know into a group and told them all at once.

Within a week, everyone on the base knew, no doubt thanks to Hana and her various social media accounts.

* * *

It was another three months before Fareeha's cravings set in. She thought she was doing fairly well, the only major difference from being pregnant being the physical changes and the increased bathroom visits, but then one day she woke up with a strong desire for pickles.

It was 2:30 in the morning and Angela had managed to tangle herself with her fairly well. Through years of practice, Fareeha had successfully extracted herself and made a beeline to the cupboard in the kitchen where they kept jars, searching through the various food items until she found her prize.

There was only one pickle, but she figured that if she ate one, the craving would be gone and she could return to bed.

Angela stumbled into the kitchen half an hour later to find her curled up on the floor, crying as she held the now empty jar.

"What's wrong, liebling?" She yawned, turning on the light and immediately wincing at the brightness.

"We have no more pickles." Fareeha sobbed as Angela came to kneel next to her, the other woman pushing up her glasses slightly as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

"It's okay, I can get more in the morning. Why don't you come back to bed?"

Something about effectively being told to wait until morning made Fareeha suddenly stop being upset, and suddenly very angry. "Why do I have to wait until morning? Do you know how many times I've had to get stuff for you in the middle of the night when you've been too busy working to sleep?" She hissed, glaring at Angela whose eyes went wide at the sudden outburst. Immediately Fareeha regretted what she had done and started crying again. "I'm so sorry, Angela. I didn't mean it.".

She allowed Angela to pull the empty jar from her grasp as the woman repeated over and over that it was okay.

"It's normal to get mood swings. I won't hold this against you.". Fareeha allowed herself to be pulled into a seated position as tears still flowed down her face. "Now come on, why don't we go back to bed and in the morning, we can go to the supermarket and buy some more pickles?"

Fareeha nodded as she stood, leaning on Angela as they went upstairs together.

The next morning Fareeha told Angela a trip to the store wasn't necessary as she no longer craved pickles.

Now she wanted to eat paper.

* * *

If there was one thing Fareeha had a huge amount of trouble being decisive over, it was naming things. In fact, she had so much trouble naming things that she'd purposely put off discussing baby names with Angela until there was only a month left to go.

She knew it probably wasn't a good idea, but she couldn't really see any downsides.

That was until she was forced to endure the discussion and reminded about who she was married to.

"Did you just…go to a baby name website and grab every Arabic and swiss name you could?" Fareeha asked as she scrolled through the 27-page long document on the tablet ahead of her. Angela's lack of response was more than enough of an answer.

"I was thinking we could just start with the A's and keep going until we find one we both like.". Her wife proposed, and when Fareeha couldn't think of any better ideas, they went ahead and did just that.

When they'd made it over halfway through the list and found they couldn't agree on a single name, Fareeha began to grow concerned. What if they couldn't think of a name? What if the child had to spend its whole life going around as 'Baby' or 'Daughter' because both of her mothers were too indecisive?

"What about that one?" Angela asked, clearly sensing the panic that began to overtake Fareeha. Damn, did she _hate_ pregnancy hormones.

Fareeha read the name, saying it out loud to see how it sounded. When Angela told her what it meant, Fareeha fell in love with it, as did their unborn daughter, judging by the way she suddenly became far more active.

"She's moving a lot again." Fareeha smiled as she rubbed her now very obvious baby bump, Angela herself reaching across to feel for their kicking baby.

"Maybe she wants to come out." Angela smiled, leaning towards Fareeha's stomach. "But you have to wait at least another ten days before you're allowed to come out, even if we can't wait to meet you.".

* * *

When Angela had said about their daughter having to wait another ten days, Fareeha had simply smiled. She knew that it would put her safely into the 'term period', but she honestly expected another three weeks before she would be panic-waddling out of the bathroom and down to the basement to find Angela.

"Angela, habibti, my water broke." She called as she began to make her way down the second flight of stairs.

Angela seemingly appeared out of nowhere, rushing to the second to top step with such speed Fareeha was somewhat surprised there wasn't a dust trail behind her.

"Okay, you need to get to the car, I'll go grab the call and bag Ana, Sam and Falke and tell them to meet us at the hospital."

Fareeha was about to correct Angela's mistake, but her wife was already out of sight again, leaving her to make her way towards the car on her own.

She barely had a chance to buckle up before Angela was throwing the 'baby bag' into the backseat and jumping into the front. Fareeha's panic worsened as Angela pulled out of their driveway at terrifying speed, and multiple times on the way to the hospital, Fareeha had to remind her wife to slow down lest they end up going to their destination for far less joyful reasons.

When they arrived, their families were already there, Ana, Sam and Falke (who was already wearing a 'Best Uncle' shirt) following the two women into the birthing room. The midwife that greeted them immediately performed some checks to see how far Fareeha was into labour.

As it turned out, she was already surprisingly far into it, but it was still another twelve hours before the pain grew to being unbearable. The midwife gave Fareeha a breathing apparatus that she knew was meant to ease the pain.

"I know you all want to be here, but there's a maximum of two family allowed present for the birth.". The midwife explained sweetly as Fareeha gripped Angela's hand. A rather strong contraction hit her, and she was absently aware of the pained noise Angela let out when she squeezed her hand.

She glanced at her mother who nodded, Sam grabbing Falke's upper arm and taking them both out of the room.

The moment both men had left, the midwife assisted Fareeha into the birthing position and before long, she was being coached through the birth. The very tiny part of Fareeha's brain that wasn't entirely focused on getting the baby out of her realised that Angela was following all the instructions for breathing too.

Someone said something, but Fareeha ignored it, doing her best to continue pushing as she felt something large trying to exit her.

Suddenly, the pain was gone and the room was silent.

A small sound was heard from the space between Fareeha's legs, and it grew into a fully fledged wail.

The midwife held up Fareeha and Angela's baby, and both women began crying as their eyes settled on the single most beautiful thing either of them had ever seen. The woman then made her way over with the new born, Angela taking initiative to pull the top of Fareeha's gown down so that the midwife could place their daughter on Fareeha's chest.

Fareeha stared at the baby she was now holding, lightly running a hand through the black tuft of hair atop her head. "Hi there." She said as tears streamed down her face. A pale hand came to rest on the wrinkled back of the new born, Fareeha feeling Angela's lips press against her forehead.

"I'm so proud of you." Angela mumbled tearfully,

Ana wasn't fairing much better as she made her way over to see her granddaughter. "She's so beautiful, just like her mothers and grandmother." She smiled.

Fareeha was aware of the midwife cleaning up down below. She finished after a moment and went to fetch Sam and Falke, both men rushing into the room, intent on seeing their granddaughter and niece.

Falke immediately began to snap photos while Sam gushed over how cute the new baby was. "What's her name?" He asked once he finished proclaiming how she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

"Rahma." Fareeha answered.

* * *

After their families had left and they had some time together, they began calling their friends who intermittently visited them over the two days they were in hospital.

Angela had called Genji, who was currently in Nepal with Zenyatta, almost straight away. Upon showing him his niece, Genji ran off and soon returned wearing his own 'Best Uncle' shirt and joking about divorcing Falke for not telling him sooner.

When Hana and Lucio visited, Hana immediately treated Rahma to her first photo op, gently placing headphones and sunglasses on her while Lucio snapped a picture. He'd sent it to both Angela and Fareeha, and they both set it as their phone backgrounds.

Lena and Emily both took turns holding Rahma and making baby noises, Fareeha certain Amélie nearly turned blue again when the Lena passed Rahma into her arms.

"You won't break her." Angela smiled as Amélie continued to look terrified. She eventually passed the baby to Emily, and Fareeha thought she was about to pass out from relief.

The strangest thing was when Satya and Sombra turned up. Fareeha could never recall ever hearing Satya making baby noises at anything, and found it incredibly sweet to see her making those noises at her daughter. Sombra, however, had something she desperately wanted to show both Angela and Fareeha.

"It's from an old friend, he wanted me to show you this." She explained as she passed the two of them her tablet, the screen showing a message that read:

 _Congratulations on the new kid. I don't know what she looks like, but I trust she's beautiful. I'm happy for both of you._

Both Fareeha and Angela didn't need a name to know who it was from.

The final guest was unexpected to say the least.

"Jack." Angela greeted the former Strike Commander.

"Angela. Fareeha.". He nodded at the two of them. In his hands was a teddy bear, and he pointed it in the direction of the Rahma's crib. "I heard the news. I wanted to say congratulations, and to give her this, if you'll allow it.".

Fareeha smiled. "I think it's too big for her, but you're more than welcome to see her and hold her if you like.".

Angela strode over to him and took the teddy bear. "Thanks for coming, Jack." She smiled and Fareeha let out the breath she didn't realise she had been holding. She knew Angela had a few problems with him, especially after she found out he was still alive. She was glad that they didn't matter now, if at all.

They went home the morning after Jack's visit, and as they placed Rahma in the crib in her nursery, Fareeha couldn't help but feel like the luckiest woman alive to have the two most beautiful girls in the world in her life.


	14. Last Time for Everything

Fareeha smiled as she watched Aarón chase after Adrián, the latter waving a plastic sword around madly. Behind them toddled Aya, trying desperately to keep up with her two cousins.

"Boys, slow down a bit. Aya's trying to play too." Rahma called before she turned back towards the coffee table to pick up her cup of tea.

Angela chuckled as she sipped at her own cup of the drink, having grown to prefer it to coffee in her old age. "Now, Rahma, are you sure that's a good idea? Remember what happened when we told you the same thing with Milo?"

Rahma rolled her eyes and sighed, Fareeha grinning as she thought about how of all the behavioural traits to pick up off Angela, that was the one their daughter got the most. She was going to add something to her wife's comment, but was cut short by her son.

"Yeah, Rahma. You got told to slow down and since then you've never been faster than me!" He proclaimed, flexing his right arm while looking pointedly as his own wife, Yasmine. Fareeha had great trouble keeping a straight face at the lack of muscle that showed and a glance at Angela showed that she was faring equally as well.

"Doesn't matter. I could stick you in a choke hold and make you pass out any day." Rahma retaliated. She flexed her arm too, and Fareeha was powerless to not snort at the way Milo blanched at the muscles his sister did have.

"Honestly, it's times like these I'm glad I'm an only child." Lucián, Rahma's husband, commented.

During the conversation, the three children had managed to exit the room. None of the adults noticed (nor would they have been particularly worried if they had) until a loud crash was heard in the dining room, followed by equally as loud crying. A second later, Aarón was coming back into the room with his arm around Adrián, the other boy holding his nose as he cried. Angela saw the tiniest drip of red and was off to fetch some tissue paper for his nose.

She came back in at the same time Aya stumbled back into the room, the two-year-old looking incredibly pleased with herself.

Angela sat back down on her side of the sofa next to Fareeha and patted her knee. "Come sit here, Adrián, let Oma look at you.". She smiled. The five-year-old climbed onto her lap but stayed covering his nose until she pried his hand away. It wasn't broken, but it was bleeding nastily.

"Aya, why are you smiling?" Milo asked his daughter.

"I trip him." She grinned toothily as Yasmine walked over to pick her up and scold her for doing such a thing.

"It's your Oma's and Gidda's 40th wedding anniversary and you behave like this." Yasmine couldn't keep the exasperation from her voice, especially when her daughter simply continued to grin at her actions.

Fareeha reached over to her still crying grandson and rubbed his back up and down to soothe him. "Don't worry about it." She told her daughter-in-law before turning to Adrián. "When Oma and I first met, she used to have to patch me up all the time." She winked as the boy began to stop crying, Angela rolling her eyes behind the glasses that she now had to wear constantly, her eyesight having deteriorated to the point contact lenses were useless.

"Please don't encourage them.". Angela looked at the grandson on her lap, then to her other grandson and granddaughter. All three children were looking at her expectantly. "When I was younger, I used to be a doctor, and would fix people all the time." She explained. "Gidda used to get hurt so I would fix her. Sometimes I think she did it on purpose to talk to me.". She watched as Aarón settled into her wife's lap.

She wanted to explain further, but was cut off by Rahma asking her to not scare the children.

Fareeha waved her hand to brush her daughter off, glancing at her wrist as she heard the joint crack before she went to explain further. "I did not. Besides, she was the one who wanted to go for dinner all the time, and the one who wanted to buy this house together.". She saw the way her son and daughter smiled, both of them having heard stories of their lives together multiple times. Their in-laws had heard a lot about them too, but their grandchildren were just hearing their story for the first time.

"We got married 40 years ago today, which is why you're all here, and had your Mama five years later." Angela lightly tapped Adrián on the nose, it now having stopped bleeding "And then, three years later, we had Aya's Baba.".

"That's so cool!" Aarón gaped, hanging on to every word either of his grandmothers said.

They talked more after that. About their lives together, what their friends were like, what Overwatch was like. Their grandchildren constantly stopped them to ask questions, giggling wildly with every new tale about Jesse or Lena or Genji that they pried from their grandmothers. Their children and in-laws simply sat and smiled as they reminisced and told stories about the last 40 years they had spent together; the happiest 40 years of their lives.

Nearly two hours later, they finally finished with:

"The first time we fell for each other, was the last time we fell for anyone.".

They looked into each other's eyes and knew that nothing else was truer than those words.

 **A/N: So this is done now! If I'm honest, this is probably the last thing I'm going to post here. If you enjoyed this and want me, please swing over to AO3. There's more to this verse there, and I'll be starting some kind of not really Widowtracer in January (also femslash week next month mhm).**

 **Thank you so much for all the support over the past 14 chapters, and I am eternally grateful for it 3**


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